(Minghui.org) When Mr. Tan Huidong was released in 2019 after serving 4 years in prison for practicing Falun Gong, the Li County, Hunan Province resident was incontinent, unable to stand, sit or talk. 

Weeks later, Mr. Tan’s family found his tongue atrophied. They also discovered needle scars on the back of his head. While Mr. Tan was unable to tell them what had happened to him in the prison, his family suspected that he was injected with toxic drugs. 

A year after he returned home, Mr. Tan died in early October 2020. He was 76.

Mr. Tan was arrested in 2013, after a police chief spotted him distributing informational materials about Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. 

Liu Aimin, a judge for the Li County Court, later sentenced Mr. Tan to 3.5 years. Due to his poor health, he was released on medical parole.

Judge Li ordered the bailiff to take Mr. Tan to the Wangling Prison in 2016 after he passed the physical examination. Because Mr. Tan refused to renounce Falun Gong, he was forced to sit or stand for 16 hours each day. The guards constantly beat and verbally abused him. He was also held in solitary confinement, as well as in a cell facing the west with strong exposure to the sun and no air conditioning.

Mr. Tan developed severe health problems due to the torture, but Xiong Wenhua, deputy head of the Li County Political and Legal Affairs Committee (an extra-judiciary agency tasked with persecuting Falun Gong) extended his term for six months. Li County officials finally brought Mr. Tan home in November 2019, after the prison guards repeatedly expressed concerns that he might die in prison. 

The Wangling Prison is the main facility in Hunan Province where male Falun Gong practitioners are imprisoned. To force practitioners to renounce their faith, a “Transformation Ward” was established in October 2017, where practitioners are subjected to a variety of torture methods, including long hours of standing, sleep deprivation, and physical abuse including the “leg-splitting” torture.

Related report:

Wangling Prison Guards Brag about Being Experienced in Torturing Falun Gong Practitioners

Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured at Wangling Prison in Hunan Province

Falun Gong Practitioners Tortured to Paralysis at Wangling Prison in Hunan Province

Chinese version available

Category: Reports of Death Cases