Lai Zhiqiang - 赖志强
Chinese name:
赖志强
Gender:
Male
Age:
50s
City:
Tangshan
Province:
Hebei
Occupation:
Driver
Date of Death:
January 3, 2023
Date of Most Recent Arrest:
March 31, 2016
Most recent place of detention:
Jidong Second Prison
Case Description:
Mr. Lai Zhiqiang’s wife waited seven long years, eager to reunite with him, only to learn on January 3, 2023, that he had died two months before his scheduled release from serving a wrongful term for his faith in Falun Gong.NNAccording to Mr. Lai’s wife, who wasn’t allowed to see his body until the next day, he was curled up and his face had been injured. Five guards held her back to keep her from getting close to or touching him. They refused to return his body to the family and deceived his daughter into signing a consent form to have his body cremated.NNMr. Lai, of Tangshan City, Hebei Province, was arrested on March 31, 2016, and secretly sentenced to seven years. His elderly mother was so traumatized that she passed away shortly after.NNMr. Lai suffered a stroke in 2019 from being tortured in custody, but the prison denied his family’s multiple requests to visit him. When his wife was finally granted a visit in January 2020, she was heartbroken to see that the guards had to carry him out. He could hardly move. He didn’t appear to recognize her and didn’t respond when she cried.NNAccording to an insider, Mr. Lai was held in the prison clinic for nearly six months and was force-fed every day. The guards kept the feeding tube in his stomach. His lips became very dry and cracked. Some of the nurses occasionally used a towel to drip some water into his mouth. He often had tears in his eyes when they did that. He also moved his lips but couldn’t speak.NNMr. Lai’s family demanded medical parole for him, but the prison claimed that they had to wait for their superiors to make the decision. Meanwhile, they charged the family several thousand yuan, claiming it was needed to pay Mr. Lai’s medical bills.NNMr. Lai’s condition further deteriorated in 2020, and he contracted a lung infection in August 2020. He was in a vegetative state and had difficulty breathing. When the prison took him to the hospital, the doctor did a tracheotomy on him but nothing else. The doctor implied that there was not much hope for him to recover.NNDespite Mr. Lai’s condition, the prison always kept him shackled with heavy chains. He was brought back to the prison after over a month in the hospital only to be taken back to the hospital on September 9, 2020, even before his trachea was closed.NNMr. Lai’s family kept applying for medical parole for him. The prison claimed that the justice bureau had denied the request. When his family went to the justice bureau themselves to submit the request, they were stopped at the door and not allowed to talk to anyone.
Related articles:
https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2024/1/9/214242.html
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