Profile: Liu Benzhi / 刘本芝
This archive preserves the documented media and case record for Liu Benzhi (刘本芝), a school teacher and Falun Gong practitioner from Linkou County, Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, serving a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
Case chronology (as documented by the case sources)
- January 2005: Home raided by Linkou County domestic-security officers; Falun Gong books and materials seized; interrogated; family extorted 3,000 yuan, according to the case account.
- April 15, 2005: Taken from her school; home raided again; interrogated at the police department with reported physical abuse; fifteen-day detention. Her family paid repeated sums to police, according to the account. Released May 31, 2005; school barred her from resuming work.
- May 2008: Summoned by the county “610” office for an “exit survey” and made to sign paperwork.
- October 15, 2017: Detained in Mudanjiang City; five days of detention.
- 2019 / 2022: Repeated police phone harassment, including a September 2022 visit demand and a filming of her home.
- May 11, 2023 (morning): Detained at the Gucheng fair while distributing Falun Gong informational materials. Taken to Gucheng police station, then the Linkou County Police Department; biometric data forcibly collected; home raided at noon (computer, printer, phone, books seized).
- May 12, 2023: Physical examination at Linkou County Hospital; fifteen days of detention; interrogated twice.
- May 26, 2023: Processed for release on bail; sent home.
- November 1, 2023: Taken to the Yabuli Town Procuratorate (Shangzhi City) for a deposition; afterward goes into hiding.
- August 2024: Taken back into custody.
- Mid-November 2024: Learned that a local court had sentenced her to two and a half years; reported held in Mudanjiang City. Court, charge, and exact facility not stated in the available record. Term recorded to February 2027.
Source record
- CHRD Prisoners of Conscience database — individual record for 刘本芝 / “Liu Benzhi”: female; last detained 2024.8; charge unknown; two years six months; release 2027.2; location unknown; biographical summary identifying her as a teacher living in Nanshan Community, Linkou County, Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang, and a Falun Gong practitioner (2023-05-11 detention while distributing materials → 2023-05-26 bail → 2024-08 re-arrest → 2.5-year sentence learned mid-November 2024; held in Mudanjiang). Record entered 2024-12-15; accessed via the database’s public search (https://tenchu.org/pocd/public/searchpage; query: name=刘本芝; exactly one record returned; “benzhi” variant query returned the same single row; zero additional records).
- Minghui (明慧网) — “传播真相 黑龙江林口县女教师刘本芝被枉判两年半” (November 22, 2024): full case report confirming every CHRD anchor — Linkou County, Mudanjiang; teacher; Nanshan Community; the 2023-05-11 fair detention and home raid; the 2023-05-26 bail release; the November 2023 procuratorate deposition; the August 2024 re-arrest; the 2.5-year sentence; detention in Mudanjiang City — plus the earlier 2005–2022 persecution history. The article is published by a practitioner-affiliated outlet; abuse and procedural characterizations are source-attributed. (Minghui report, 2024-11-22)
- Minghui English — “Heilongjiang Teacher Sentenced to 2.5 Years for Practicing Falun Gong” (November 29, 2024, en.minghui.org): English rendering of the same case report; confirms the 2023-05-11 detention, the 2023-05-26 bail, the 2024-08 re-arrest, the 2.5-year sentence learned mid-November 2024, the Mudanjiang detention location, and the 2005–2022 history. No material fact diverges from the Chinese original or the CHRD record. (Minghui English report, 2024-11-29)
- Issue 131 monthly roster — Liu Benzhi (刘本芝) listed in the “2 years 6 months” sentence group and reported in custody; Chinese form verified against the English listing by positional correspondence within the same report.
Evidentiary limitations
- The specific court that imposed the 2.5-year sentence is not named in any located source.
- The formal criminal charge is not stated in any located source (CHRD records it as unknown).
- The exact detention facility in Mudanjiang City is not confirmed.
- Accounts of physical abuse and extortion (2005 interrogation, home raids, repeated extortion of the family) come from the practitioner-affiliated report and have not been independently verified.
- No official court verdict or state-media coverage of this case has been located.
Profile: Liu Benzhi / 刘本芝