(Minghui.org)
Name: Luo GuiruChinese Name: 罗桂茹Gender: FemaleAge: Late 60sCity: PengzhouProvince: SichuanOccupation: FarmerDate of Death: Around July 2023Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 24, 2016Most Recent Place of Detention: Sichuan Province Women’s Prison
When Ms. Luo Guiru’s friends went to her home in September 2023 to see if she had been released from serving a seven-year term for practicing Falun Gong, her husband said to her friends, “She will never return!” and he refused to provide any other information.
The friends talked to Ms. Luo’s neighbors. One of them said, “It has been two months since she passed away. We don’t know the details. Her daughter was in charge.” Another one said, “We don’t know how she died. Her daughter didn’t even pick up her ashes.”
Ms. Luo, a Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province, resident, then in her 60s, was arrested on October 24, 2016 after being taken by a motorcycle driver to the police station, for giving him a Falun Gong booklet. She was held at the Pengzhou Lockup before being transferred to the Chengdu City Detention Center.
Ms. Luo stood trial at the Pengzhou City Court on August 15, 2018. Her family hired a lawyer for her, who entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf. He argued that no law in China has ever criminalized Falun Gong, and that it is her constitutional right to practice Falun Gong and distribute materials about it. He demanded an acquittal.
Ms. Luo also spoke in her own defense. She described how her health and character both improved after starting the practice. She also asked for an acquittal from the judge.
The judge sentenced Ms. Luo to seven years during the second hearing on September 7, 2018. She was transferred to the Sichuan Province Women’s Prison at an unknown time and died there two months before her scheduled release. Her friends suspected that she was tortured to death in the prison.
Woman in Her 60s Sentenced to Seven Years for Distributing Falun Gong Informational Materials
Exposing the Torture of Falun Gong Practitioners in Sichuan Province Women’s Prison