(Minghui.org) A 60-year-old resident of Dazhu County, Sichuan Province was diagnosed with colon cancer in January 2023, while serving 7.5 years for his faith in Falun Gong. The prison authorities notified Mr. Wang Haiqian’s family to apply for medical parole for him, but they delayed the approval process and didn’t release him until around September 2023, when his cancer had metastasized. He died one month later. He was 60.
It was confirmed by Minghui.org that local agents of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee and Domestic Security Office had threatened Mr. Wang’s family not to expose his death online. They also kept his family from paying their respects.
Mr. Wang, a former middle school teacher, was arrested on July 27, 2019, while reading Falun Gong books together with 25 other practitioners. He was sentenced to 7.5 years with a 50,000-yuan fine by the Dazhu County Court on December 29, 2020. He appealed to the Dazhou City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold the original verdict. He was admitted to the Jiazhou Prison between July 31 and August 5, 2021.
Mr. Wang’s family learned around October 2021 that he had developed symptoms of liver disease after being tortured in the prison, and was at one point taken to the prison hospital. They requested to visit him, but the prison turned them down, citing the pandemic as an excuse.
Mr. Wang was diagnosed with colon cancer in January 2023 but the prison delayed the processing of his medical parole request despite his family’s urging for his immediate release. By September 2023, his cancer had metastasized and he could no longer eat. Only then did the prison release him on parole on October 10. He was taken to the Dazhu County Justice Bureau in an ambulance and carried back home by his family. He died one month later on November 20 at the Dazhu County Chinese Medicine Hospital.
Mr. Wang’s death capped his decades-long suffering for upholding his faith in Falun Gong. He credited Falun Gong with curing his sinusitis, gastritis, neurosis, and Hepatitis B, but he had been arrested multiple times for upholding his faith over the years. He almost died while serving a two-year labor camp term.
According to available data collected by Minghui.org, Mr. Wang was the 25th Falun Gong practitioner who has died as a result of the torture and abuse in Jiazhou Prison. Some died in the prison, while others passed away after they were released on the brink of death.
In addition to the 23 deaths reported in the article below, the 24th practitioner who was tortured to death by the prison was Mr. Wei Yongqing. The former assistant engineer at Xihua University in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, was in a delirious state when he was released in February 2023 from serving a five-year term. He did not even know to use the restroom and relieved himself anywhere when nature called. He passed away months later on August 29. He was 83.