BEIJING, Sep 6, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) A retiree and two factory workers belonging to the spiritual movement Falun Gong died mysteriously after being arrested by police, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The deaths bring the total number of Falun Gong members who died under police custody to 50 since the group was banned as an "evil cult" last July, according to the group's website, minghui.org.

In the latest cases, Liu Yufeng, a 64-year-old retiree from northern Shandong province, died hours after police released him from jail July 22 after holding him for two days for practicing Falun Gong meditations in public, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Liu was covered with scars from being beaten with an electric baton and three of his ribs were broken, the center said, citing information from Liu's family.

However, police contacted by AFP Wednesday said they were not responsible for his death.

"He died from a burst blood vessel in his head according to a forensic report," a police official said. "As to the wounds on his body, his cellmates beat him because he annoyed them by constantly saying how good Falun Gong was. Nobody liked him."

In the second case, Zhang Tieyan, a 29-year-old worker from a chemical factory in northern Heilongjiang province, died on August 11 due to poor conditions in jail, the center said.

Zhang was arrested in April for refusing to sign a statement renouncing her faith in Falungong. She was crammed into a sweltering cell with more than 10 people and had fainted several times, according to other Falun Gong members locked up with her.

On August 11 she died after cellmates saw her struggling to breathe, with her legs shaking, the center said.

A day earlier, Li Faming, a 52-year-old worker at an aluminum factory in northern Gansu province, died under suspicious circumstances after police arrested him, accusing him of passing out Falun Gong leaflets on the streets.

That day, police took Li back to his home to search for evidence and shortly after they entered the house, police beat him, the center said.

Several of Li's colleagues then saw him falling from a window of his fourth floor apartment in the company's residential building, according to the rights center.

A spokesman at the state-owned factory said Wednesday it appeared Li jumped from the window.

Police said Li committed suicide, but Sophie Xiao, a Falun Gong spokeswoman based in Hong Kong, said it is against the group's teachings to commit suicide.

"There's been an escalation of persecution against us. The number of deaths in the past month has doubled. No one committed suicide," Xiao said.

The report of the deaths come on the heels of a U.S. State Department report released Tuesday which said religious repression in China had significantly worsened in the past year.

The report cited as evidence the crackdown on Falun Gong, which shocked the government when 10,000 members conducted a silent protest outside the government compound last April.

China has sentenced 450 members to prison, sent 600 to mental hospitals, placed 10,000 in labor camps and locked up another 20,000 in temporary detention, the center said. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)