Friday November 9, 3:34 PM

BEIJING (Reuters) - A former judge in China's southern province of Jiangxi died in detention after being jailed for involvement with the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong, a prison doctor said on Friday.

Hu Qingyun, once a judge at a provincial high court, died of leukemia earlier this year, the doctor at the Jiangxi Provincial Labour Reform Bureau Hospital told Reuters by telephone.

Falun Gong's U.S.-based information centre says more than 1,000 followers of the movement have died in detention in China's relentless campaign to stamp out the group it banned and brands an "[Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted]".

[...]

Hu's is perhaps the highest profile case of a former government official dying in detention after being accused of involvement with Falun Gong.

The movement provoked a government backlash after more than 10,000 adherents staged a sit-in around the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing in April 1999.

After banning the movement in July of that year, the [party's name omitted] government declared its organisers would be tried and ordinary followers sent to labour camps, which does not require a trial, if they refused to renounce their beliefs.

Among those jailed with Hu was a former deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security.

Falun Gong says 306 followers have died from torture.

It alleged this week a 50-year-old woman died of torture in a Shandong province detention centre and another woman was beaten and drugged to death at a mental hospital in Ningxia province.

Treatment of Falun Gong detainees is a prominent concern of rights groups and the United Nations, whose human right chief, Mary Robinson, was in Beijing on Friday and expected to raise the issue of torture in talks with senior leaders.

The U.N. special torture investigator, Nigel Rodley, has said torture of political and religious detainees is a problem in China.

China has denied Rodley, who is stepping down from the post next week, permission to visit with full access to detention centres and only offered a "friendly visit".

The Falun Gong information centre said Hu's belief in the outlawed spiritual system, [...] had kept him alive since 1998, shortly after he was diagnosed with leukemia and told by doctors he had three days to live.

His death came about two months after he was sentenced to seven years in jail for selling Falun Gong books illegally, it said.

[...]

Hu had been held in custody for 18 months before the sentencing, it said.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-71279.html