(Minghui.org) Mr. Yang Shengjun passed away nine days after he was arrested for not renouncing his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Yang, a resident of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested with his 81-year-old mother, Ms. Jin Shurong, at home on August 2, 2019.

According to Ms. Yang's younger brother, who lives in Japan and recently came back to visit his family, three officers knocked on the door shortly after his mother and older brother went out on the morning of August 2.

After he opened the door, the officers rushed in to ransack the place, confiscating Mr. Yang's printer, computer, and about 60 Falun Gong books.

The officers didn't leave after the home ransacking, but waited and arrested Mr. Yang and his mother as soon as they returned.

At the Youyilu Police Station, the police interrogated the mother and son, questioning how they printed Falun Gong-related materials at home, demanded to know who taught them to use the printer, how many and how often they printed the materials, and if there were any other practitioners who took the materials from them for distribution.

They refused to answer the questions.

Although the elderly mother was released at around 11:00 p.m. that day, Mr. Yang was taken to the hospital for a physical examination. He was found to have a medical condition, but the police forced the local detention center to accept him after extorting a 400-yuan examination fee from his younger brother.

The police came to Mr. Yang's home at around 5:30 a.m. on August 11, and informed his family that he was vomiting blood at the detention center early that morning and had been sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.

The police then brought his family to the hospital to visit him. On the way to the hospital, they said to his family that they weren't responsible for Mr. Yang since they had already handed him over to the detention center.

Mr. Yang received eight bags of blood at the hospital. He was still able to talk in the morning, but fell into a coma in the afternoon. He passed away at 9:00 p.m.

The hospital charged his family 30,000 yuan for his treatment.

Mr. Yang's body was cremated two days later. His family was threatened by the police and are now frightened and intimidated about discussing his case.

Since July 2019, the authorities have ramped up the persecution of Falun Gong in Jiamusi City. It has been confirmed by Minghui.org that over 40 Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested and hundreds harassed for their faith.