January 02, 2004

MEMBERS of the Falun Dafa spiritual movement today gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in Canberra to protest the death of a man in Chinese police custody.

Protest organizers said Falun Dafa practitioner Liu Chengjun died in a hospital in the Chinese province of Jilin on December 26, after having been beaten and denied medical care while he was in prison.

Mr Liu was sentenced to 19 years in jail in September 2002 for helping [tap] into a Chinese cable television station and then broadcasting pro-Falun Dafa programming.

Falun Dafa spokesman John Deller told a crowd of about 60 protesters that Mr Liu had died because he had spoken out in favour of Falun Dafa, which is banned in China.

"Chengjun Liu died trying to let the Chinese people know the truth of Falun Dafa," Mr Deller said.

"Throughout Mr Liu's imprisonment, sources say he was subjected to severe torture and abuse.

"According to eyewitnesses who saw Liu in October last year, he was incapacitated and hard to recognise from the torture."

Mr Deller said Mr Liu's body was cremated within seven hours of his death.

"This type of speedy cremation follows the pattern of dozens of reported cases when Falun Dafa practitioners have died in police custody, and have then been cremated before family members could identify the body, or anybody could find out what's truly happened to them," he said.

Falun Dafa claims more than 1600 of its practitioners have died after being tortured by Chinese police.

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