May the Light of Rule of Law Shine on China — Personal Statement from Attorney Li Heping on Being Beaten

China Aid Association
May the Light of Rule of Law Shine on
China — Personal Statement from Attorney Li Heping on Being Beaten
Thank God for giving me an opportunity as an attorney to experience and witness personally the harshness of electric torture. At 5:30 PM on the afternoon of September 29, 2007, I came out from work in the office building in Chaoyang District of Beijing. In the parking lot, a group of unidentified people covered my head with a cloth bag and pushed me into a sedan without a license plate. I was taken to a basement in a suburb of Beijing. There, several people took turns to beat me brutally, slap my face, hit me on the head with water bottles, and kick me. The most unbearable form of their torture was hitting me with high-voltage electric batons. I was so badly beaten that I rolled on the ground everywhere. Yet, they continued to chase and beat me with smiles on their faces. The beating went on and off for four to five hours. At 1:00 AM on the morning of September 30, they again covered my head and drove me for quite a while in two sedans without license plates. They dropped me off and left the scene. I then found I was in a small wooded area near Xiaotangshan.
When I went back home and checked on the situation, I found the materials for appeal on Cao Dong’s case that I’d undertaken were gone. Cellular phone cards and portable hard disk were also gone. The notebook computer was completely formatted not even the drivers were spared. Gone also were a business card holder and a paper notebook. It’s hard for those who have not experienced this to believe it, but it happened in broad daylight in Beijing, host of the 2008 Olympic Games.
I completely disagree with the conduct of brazenly trampling on the human rights and rule of law. Those who beat me threatened me by saying I must not engage in the business of law in Beijing and I must leave Beijing with all my family. I long for the rule of law and the peaceful progress of the society. I told them at the site of beating that I wouldn’t hate them. I wish the light of rule of law will shine on China and all my Chinese compatriots, including those who beat me.
Li Heping
Written on October 1, 2007, National Day of the People’s Republic of
China