A 35-year-old woman follower of Falun Gong was killed by her fellow practitioners for trying to break away from the cult, headed by Li Hongzhi, early this year, according to local law enforcement department.

Evidence indicates that Wei Zhihua was killed mercilessly last February by more than ten Falun Gong followers including her own husband Lan Shaowei, who believed her mind was infected with "evil " and needed to be cured with doctrines from Li Hongzhi's books.

After Wei's death, the practitioners, with collective efforts, concealed the truth, produced fake evidence and kept the case hidden for months before a fellow practitioner told local police about the truth in July, judicial investigation has showed.

A witness, who also took part in the action, confessed that on February 19 Lan and other followers bound up Wei's hands and feet and then they read aloud Li Hongzhi's doctrines to get rid of the "evil in her mind". As Wei struggled and shouted, they sealed her mouth and nose in spite of her strong resistance.

"Wei was struggling at first and cried that she does not want to be disciple of Li Hongzhi anymore, so they sealed her mouth and nose to stop her," said the witness.

Then the practitioners read aloud until Wei eventually ceased struggling and fell into coma.

The Falun Gong followers present were excited at Wei's coma and one of them, named Ouyang Jie, yelled, "it's O.K., the evil is removed," the witness recalled.

However, Wei never awoke. Medical staff indicated that she were dead due to respiration failure.

Police investigation revealed that Wei, once a firm follower of Falun Gong, cast doubt on Li Hongzhi's doctrines after her beloved mother-in-law, also a pious practitioner, died last year because of refusing to see doctor for illness, as instructed in the doctrines by Li Hongzhi.

After that, while still practicing Falun Gong, Wei often doubted if it was really right. Later, she began to curse Li Hongzhi and condemn him for not saving her mother-in-law.

Such things greatly angered other followers, who believed she was controlled by "evil" and the local leaders of the cult decided to eradicate it in accordance with what Li Hongzhi requires in his books.

Wei's death caused a tremor among other practitioners in Shenzhen, a well-off coastal city in south China's Guangdong province.

Lan and his confederates made an instant report to Xu Xian, their superior in the cult with the alias "Da Shan", who told them time and again not to admit that the death has anything to do with Falun Gong in case police get to know about it.

"If the people know about the true story, they will at once be clear about what kind of things Falun Gong actually is," said Li Yan, an activist involved in the case.

The participants were instructed to conceal the facts and they conspired to make identical confessions to deal with the possible police investigation, investigation showed.

(People's Daily 09/20/2001)