(Minghui.org) When Mr. Lu Songming returned home in 2018 after serving a third prison term for practicing Falun Gong, he had almost died several times due to torture in custody. Having lost the ability to work due to a severe heart condition, he relied on picking left-over vegetables in the farmers’ market to get by. He was easily exhausted after carrying heavy items and had to lie down frequently to rest. After struggling with poor health for three years, the 53-year-old man passed away on the evening of March 28, 2021.

Mr. Lu Songming

Mr. Lu lost his mother at a young age and was raised by his father. After he graduated from the Hunan Province Normal University in 1990, he became a history teacher in a middle school in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province. In 1996, he began to practice Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline also known as Falun Dafa

Three years later, the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. Because Mr. Lu refused to give up his faith, he was fired by the middle school and sentenced three times, for a total of 14 years. While serving time, he was subjected to various tortures, including being hung up, beaten, shocked with electric batons and forced to do long hours of intensive labor. The torture and abuse completely destroyed his health. He developed a severe heart condition and was on the verge of death a dozen times. 

By the time Mr. Lu was released in 2006 after the first prison term, his wife had been forced by the authorities to divorce him. The court granted his house and custody of his son to his wife, leaving him homeless and penniless. He had to take odd jobs to make a living, including repairing shoes on the street and selling peanuts.

When Mr. Lu was arrested again in September 2014, his father, in his 80s, traveled 30 miles from his hometown to the detention center to visit him, but was denied visitation.

First Prison Term

Mr. Lu was first arrested on March 11, 2001 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong and was later sentenced to five years. He served time in three prisons, including Chishan Prison in Yiyang City, and Jinshi and Wuling Prisons in Changde City.

In February 2002, the guards tied him to a bed in a spread-eagle position for six days. They didn’t allow him to sleep and tried to pressure him to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. 

Torture reenactment: tied up on a bed

Mr. Lu wrote a sentence from Falun Gong’s teachings on a piece of paper in November 2002. The guard on duty ordered inmates to grab the paper from him and called in more guards. 

The guards accused Mr. Lu of “attacking” them and dragged him back to his cell. They cuffed his hands to the metal bars of the headboard of the bed and kept him handcuffed for seven days, only loosening the cuffs when he had to use the restroom.

In addition to the physical torture, Mr. Lu was also forced to do hard labor, sometimes for 16 hours a day. His legs became severely swollen due to long hours of standing. He was unable to walk and had to be carried to the workshop. 

On January 10, 2003, Mr. Lu and two other practitioners held a hunger strike to protest having their heads shaved. The guards beat and force-fed him. They inserted a long rubber feeding tube into his mouth, which caused his stomach to spasm and made it difficult for him to breathe. A few minutes later, the pressure of regurgitation pushed the congee out of his stomach and it splashed onto the prison doctor. Only then did they stop the forced-feeding.

Because Mr. Lu refused to work, the guards kicked him and stomped on his chest. He explained to the guards that he didn’t commit any crime, but was persecuted for upholding his faith. He recounted how the guards hung him up or forced him to work for long hours each day, or held other practitioners in solitary confinement in cells full of mice and mosquitoes and forced them to remain standing for up to 18 hours a day without moving.

The guards were infuriated to hear his “complaint” and ordered the inmates to hang him up from the window frame. 

One inmate dragged Mr. Lu across the ground on the eighth day of his hunger strike, causing his pants and underwear to be pulled off. Upon arriving at the workshop, the inmate kicked him on the right side near his liver. Mr. Lu screamed in pain and later said that he felt that all of his organs were dislocated. The inmate continued to drag him to a window and hung him up for the next ten days.

Torture illustration: dragged across the ground

When Mr. Lu tried to stop the guards from torturing another practitioner on May 5, 2003, they shocked him on the temple with an electric baton. He fainted and hit his head on a rock, causing his head to bleed profusely. He suffered severe memory loss and had trouble talking and balancing afterwards. 

The long-term beatings, being hung up and intensive labor eventually caused Mr. Lu to develop severe coronary heart disease. Despite his condition, the guards still tortured him every day for at least two years.

Second Prison Term

Less than a year after he was released, Mr. Lu was arrested again on February 4, 2007 for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. He was sentenced to another five years at the Jinshi Prison. 

Because he refused to do the forced labor, the inmates beat him, causing a brain injury. On another occasion, the inmates put a piece of cloth across his mouth and pulled the cloth hard on both sides while another inmate pulled his hands behind his back and pushed his body forward. As a result of the torture, most of his teeth became loose. 

Due to the continued torture and beatings, Mr. Lu eventually lost nearly all of his teeth. By the time he was released on February 3, 2012, he only had six teeth left. He also developed high blood pressure in addition to the severe heart condition.

Mr. Lu Songming had only six teeth left when he was released.

Third Prison Term

Mr. Lu was arrested again on August 31, 2014 for distributing Falun Gong materials. While held at the Xiangxiang City Detention Center, he suffered multiple heart attacks, but the authorities ignored his condition and expedited the process to sentence him.

Despite his advanced age, Mr. Lu’s father, in his 80s, frequented the police station, the procuratorate, the court, the 610 Office (an extralegal agency created specifically to persecute Falun Gong), detention center, and local government, to seek his son’s release, but to no avail. 

Mr. Lu stood trial on December 9, 2014 and was sentenced for the third time. While serving the four-year term at Wangling Prison, he was forced to sit on a small stool without moving for up to 16 hours each day. The torture caused him to suffer frequent heart attacks and he was often resuscitated. 

Even after the doctor issued several notices of critical condition, the guards didn’t stop forcing him to sit on the small stool. Sometimes Mr. Lu rolled on the ground due to the severe chest pain, which also induced dangerously high blood pressure. Yet the guards didn’t allow him to rest in bed, which was highly recommended by the doctor.

With nowhere to seek justice, Mr. Lu was forced to stage a hunger strike to protest the persecution, which caused his health to deteriorate further. 

In the fall of 2017, a guard who had just started to work at the prison subjected Mr. Lu to the sitting and standing torture again, which immediately induced acute chest pain. Although the doctor recommended his release on medical parole, the prison still insisted on keeping him in custody and the guards often forbade him from buying daily necessities. He was often starved and didn’t have enough clothes or even a blanket to keep warm. 

Mr. Lu was released on August 31, 2018 in serious condition. He died three years later after struggling with poor health and substandard living conditions.

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