Pay More Attention to Falun Gong Practitioners Imprisoned for Their Faith During the Pandemic

(Minghui.org) Since the outbreak of the CCP virus (named after the Chinese Communist Party) pandemic in 2020, prisons in Liaoning Province have taken the opportunity to impose total closure, and the vast majority of Falun Gong practitioners detained there for their faith have lost contact with the outside world. Family visits and phone calls have been banned, and this situation has continued for over a year.

The denied family visitation isn’t the worst for the practitioners. In order to force them to renounce their faith, the guards are using various torture methods on the practitioners, such as electric shocks, beatings, hanging up by the wrists for long hours, handcuffing behind the back, starvation, freezing, denied restroom use, deprivation of sleep and brainwashing.

Many practitioners were also forced to do intensive labor without pay, mostly to make protective gear to meet the surging demand in the pandemic. The prison guards usually kept the machines running 24 hours a day and the inmates and Falun Gong practitioners were assigned different shifts to work on the machines.

Before the Chinese New Year in 2020, practitioner Ms. Ge Yingjie, from Jinzhou City, was held in solitary confinement for about a month at Liaoning Women’s Prison. And in July 2020, she was beaten twice by several inmates instigated by the prison guards.

Another practitioner, Ms. Zhou Yuzhen, also from Jinzhou City, was persecuted to the point of being skin and bones. She only weighed about 80 pounds. Her physical condition is very serious.

Ms. Li Yanqiu, from Jinzhou City, died 13 days after admission in Liaoning Province Woman's Prison on February 19, 2019. Ms. Li was extremely weak upon arriving at the prison. Yet the guards still force fed her, stripped off her clothes and made her sit on the cold concrete floor. After a few days of this, she began to have blood in her urine and was unable to stand on her own. She died days later.

Torture illustration: Beatings

In the first half of 2020 alone, ten practitioners died from the torture in various prisons in Liaoning Province, including six practitioners who died in prison and four who died not long after being released.

Below are the details of the ten death cases.

Six Practitioners Who Died in Custody

Ms. Li Guirong, Retired School Principle, 78, Dies in Liaoning Province Women's Prison

Ms. Li Guirong, a retired elementary school principal in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, died in the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison in mid-January 2020, only weeks before the end of her five-year term for practicing Falun Gong. She was 78.

Ms. Li was arrested on February 7, 2015, after having been reported for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. She appeared in the Hunnan District Court on June 24, 2015, and was sentenced to five years.

Ms. Li’s latest arrest came only 15 months after she finished serving a seven-year prison term, also for her faith. On October 17, 2006, Ms. Li, then 64, was arrested for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was sentenced to seven years by the Heping District Court on May 14, 2007.

While Ms. Li was in Liaoning Province Women's Prison, the guards ordered inmates to beat and kick her and stomp on her hands. Her face bled, her hands were swollen, and she was covered in bruises. Much of her hair was pulled out.

The guards sometimes forced Ms. Li to squat on the concrete floor for days on end, not allowing her to eat, use the restroom, or sleep. To intensify the torture, they forced her to take off her shoes and poured cold water on her feet while she squatted. Her legs hurt unbearably. She was unable to stand or sit afterward and had to crawl to get anywhere.

Mr. Zhang Zhencai Reportedly Dies from “Cancer” in Prison

Mr. Zhang Zhencai, of Heishan County, Liaoning Province, died on February 7 while serving a 23-month term.

Mr. Zhang and his wife, Ms. Zhang Lianrong, were arrested on July 14, 2019, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. They were sentenced to 23 and 26 months, respectively, by the Heishan County Court.

Mr. Zhang was sent to a prison in Dalian City, Liaoning Province. A prison guard called his family on January 23, 2020, to say that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Two weeks later, the prison informed Mr. Zhang's family that he had passed away.

Aircraft Engineer in Critial Condition Denied Medical Parole, Dies in Prison

Mr. Hu Lin, a Shenyang City, Liaoning Province resident, died on February 16, 2020, while serving two years for practicing Falun Gong.

Mr. Hu Lin

Mr. Hu was arrested on May 23, 2019, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. He started a hunger strike to protest the persecution after he was sent to the Faku County Detention Center. He was tied to a bed in a spread-eagle position and force-fed. The guards left the feeding tube in his stomach in order to increase his suffering.

Mr. Hu was sentenced to two years by the Faku County Court on June 20, 2019, and sent to Kangjiashan Prison on October 30, 2019.

Despite being emaciated, having no sensation in his legs, and suffering organ failure, the prison authorities denied him medical parole because he shouted, “Falun Dafa is good” after he was taken to Kangjiashan Prison. The prison guards said they wouldn’t release him “even if he died.”

On the evening of February 14, 2020, the prison called Mr. Hu’s older brother, Mr. Hu Shuang, and said that Mr. Hu had been sent to the hospital for emergency treatment. He died two days later.

Mr. Zou Liming Dies Six Months into His Prison Term

Mr. Zou Liming, a resident of Panjin City, Liaoning Province, passed away on March 8, 2020, six months after being imprisoned for practicing Falun Gong.

Mr. Zou was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in 2015 for talking to people about his faith. He was exempted from serving time due to his physical condition.

In September 2019, the authorities took Mr. Zou back into custody at Nanshan Prison in Jinzhou City and then transferred him to Dalian Prison in November. His family wasn’t allowed to visit him.

On February 7, 2020, his family received a call from Dalian Prison telling them that Mr. Zou had fallen into a coma and had been sent to the hospital. The prison provided no details regarding what had caused his coma.

Mr. Zou passed away one month later. He was 66 years old.

Ms. Lan Lihua Denied Medical Parole, Dies in Prison at age 49

Ms. Lan Lihua, a practitioner from Shenyang City in Liaoning Province, was arrested when giving away calendars bearing messages about Falun Gong. She was sentenced to 3 years and 10 months. While serving time in Liaoning Women’s Prison, she was infected with hepatitis B. She died at 49 on April 23, 2020.

Mr. Wang Dianguo Dies in Prison Three Years After His Wife Died in a Detention Center

Mr. Wang Dianguo, a 67-year-old resident of Anshan City, Liaoning Province, was sentenced to four years in Liaonan Prison in Dalian City for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. He died at 4 p.m. on June 16, 2020, about two years after he was admitted to prison.

Mr. Wang's imprisonment followed his arrest at home in July 2017 when his wife, Ms. Yu Baofang, and son, Mr. Wang Yu, were also seized for practicing Falun Gong. Thirteen days later, Ms. Yu died in the Anshan Women’s Detention Center.

Four Practitioners Who Died After Prison Release

Ms. Wu Xiufang Persecuted into a Vegetative State, Dies at Age 64

Ms. Wu Xiufang, from Fuxin City, was arrested on August 18, 2015, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong and its persecution by the Chinese communist regime. She was sentenced to three years in prison. At the end of June 2016, she was sent to the Liaoning Woman's Prison. While in prison she lost the ability to talk and move her eyes. She was also emaciated and could not take care for herself.

On August 18, 2018, when Ms. Wu was brought back home, she was already a skeletal vegetable. On February 8, 2020, Ms. Wu passed away.

Medical Doctor Mr. Zhao Chenglin Dies at 58

Dr. Zhao Chenglin, a military doctor in Benxi City, was sentenced to nine years in prison for practicing Falun Gong in 2002. When he was detained at Wafangdian Prison in Liaoning Province, prison guards instructed inmates to beat Mr. Zhao so badly that he vomited blood and could not walk. The prison authorities repeatedly denied his family’s requests to visit him, saying that he wasn’t cooperating with prison management.

Mr. Zhao was arrested again on March 26, 2014 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. The police hit him on the head and knocked him out. They dragged him, unconscious, into a police car and took him to Benxi Detention Center. Mr. Zhao was made to appear in court around September 2014 and was sentenced to a four-year prison term.

While serving time at Kangjiashan Prison, the guards often dragged him to the water room and had cold water poured on him. As a result of his hunger strike to protest the persecution, they force-fed him and broke several of his teeth.

Mr. Zhao never recovered after being released in 2018. After struggling for two years with poor health, he passed away on February 15, 2020.

Ms. Lin Guizhi Tortured to the Point of Being Unable to Take Care of Herself, Dies at Age 58

Ms. Lin Guizhi, from Chaoyang City, was arrested on November 19, 2003 and later sentenced to seven years. When she was hold in the Liaoning Province Woman's Prison, she developed serious symptoms and went into spasms and comas several times each day. After she was released, she was unable to take care of herself at all. On February 20, 2020, Ms. Lin Died.

Ms. Li Guojun Dies Six Months after Returning Home from Prison

Ms. Li Guojun, a Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province resident, passed away on May 5, 2020, six months after she was released on medical parole to treat her cancer. She developed cancer while serving an 11-year term for suing Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese communist regime who ordered the persecution of her faith, Falun Gong. She was 53.

Ms. Li worked in the propaganda department in the Chaoyang County government. On November 9, 2015, Ms. Li was arrested for filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime for ordering the persecution of Falun Gong. She was sentenced to 11 years and fined 1,000 yuan by the Shuangta Court around March 2016. She was also fired by her workplace.

While Ms. Li was detained at Chaoyang City Detention Center and later Liaoning Woman's Prison, she was subjected to various brutal torture. Her family applied for medical parole after she was hospitalized and operated on on February 8, 2018. The authorities didn't grant it until November 2019.

Ms. Li Guojun, after chemotherapy

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