(Minghui.org) Untold numbers of Falun Dafa practitioners have been illegally arrested and sentenced for upholding their faith after the Chinese communist regime launched the persecution of the spiritual discipline in 1999. Prison guards, in order to receive rewards and/or promotions for forcing incarcerated Dafa practitioners to renounce their faith, often instigate criminal inmates to assist them in torturing practitioners. Many practitioners have been injured, maimed, or driven to psychiatric collapse. Some have even lost their lives. 

Many practitioners died as a result of torture shortly after being taken to prison. Quite a few, after being imprisoned for years, died under mysterious circumstances a few months or even days before their terms ended. The prison authorities would mobilize the guards to watch the bodies and prevent family members from getting close to or examining the bodies. The guards told the families that their loved one died of a stroke or their heart suddenly stopped. The families who insisted on checking the bodies were often threatened. The practitioners’ remains were cremated soon after they died. 

While some were silenced before leaving prison, many practitioners were tortured with methods so cruel that it is hard for most people to comprehend the evilness behind it. Below is a compilation of several cases of practitioners who were savagely tortured in prison or killed shortly before the end of their prison term. 

Killed Shortly Before Being Released

1. Imprisoned for Nearly Seven Years, Deceased Two Months Before Release

Mr. Lai Zhiqiang’s wife waited seven long years, eager to reunite with her husband, only to learn on January 3, 2023, that he had died two months before his scheduled release from serving a wrongful term for his faith in Falun Gong.

Mr. Lai’s wife rushed to Jidong No. 2 Prison in Hebei Province after learning of her husband’s death, only to be told that she had to pay 1,000 yuan to see his body. While it’s not clear whether or not she paid the 1,000 yuan, she wasn’t allowed to see his body until the next day.

According to Mr. Lai’s wife, his body was curled up and his face had been injured. Five guards held her back to keep her from getting close to or touching him. They refused to return the body to his family and deceived his daughter into signing a consent form to have his body cremated.

Mr. Lai of Tangshan City, Hebei Province, was arrested on March 31, 2016, and secretly sentenced to seven years. His elderly mother was so traumatized by her son’s arrest and sentencing that she passed away shortly after.

2. Woman Dies Two Days Before Prison Term Ends

Ms. Su Yunxia died in prison, two days before her five-year term for practicing Falun Gong was about to expire.

Ms. Su, of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on September 7, 2016 after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong on the street. To seek her release, her bedridden husband went to the police station in a wheelchair with the help of Ms. Su’s niece, only to be refused entry.

Ms. Su’s arrest was approved in late September 2016. The Daowai District Procuratorate indicted her on October 27. The Daowai District Court sentenced her to a five-year prison term with a 10,000-yuan fine on March 31, 2017.

She was scheduled to be released from the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on September 6, 2021, but Ms. Su died just two days prior, before she could return home to reunite with her family. She was 67 years old.

According to an insider, the inmates beat Ms. Su on September 4, as she still refused to renounce Falun Gong. The prison also refused to give her a release notice for the same reason. After she was beaten to death, the guards covered her body with a white cloth and kept it in the hallway. The inmates were traumatized and didn’t dare come out of their cells to use the restroom that evening.

3. Beaten to Death Ten Days Before Release

Mr. Pan Xujun

Mr. Pan Xujun, who was arrested in May 2015 for his faith in Falun Gong, died just 10 days before his prison term ended. The family of Mr. Pan, who is from Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, suspects that the 55-year-old man was killed for his organs.

Mr. Pan was sentenced in 2016 by the Pei County Court to 5.5 years and taken to Hongzehu Prison. On November 8, 2020, ten days before Mr. Pan’s scheduled release from Hongzehu Prison, his family was summoned to the prison to visit him. When they got there, they saw his body in the prison mortuary. A prison doctor showed one of his organs to his family, saying that they had done an autopsy and determined that he had died of a stroke.

According to an insider, Mr. Pan did not die of illness, but from brain trauma from brutal beatings. The prison guards instigated an inmate named Li Wenhua to torture him in order to force him to renounce his faith. He was only allowed two hours of sleep each day, and had to sit still on a small stool for long hours. If he dozed off, Li would beat him, spray chili water in his face or slap his face to wake him up. Li struck his temple so hard that he caused brain trauma, which was the real cause of Mr. Pan’s death. 

4. Woman Falls Critically Ill and Dies Five Months Before Release

Ms. Yang Cuifen from Qiubei County, Yunnan Province, suddenly passed away in Yunnan Province No. 2 Women’s Prison, where she had been incarcerated for more than four years.

Ms. Yang’s family received a phone call from the prison on the evening of October 2, 2013, informing them that Ms. Yang was in critical condition, and ordering them to go to the hospital to sign some documents. At the hospital, Ms. Yang’s family saw that she was unrecognizable, unconscious, and barely breathing.

Ms. Yang’s family had not noticed anything wrong with her health in the past four years when they visited her in prison. She had also called her husband two days before her death and told him that she would be released in March of the following year.

The prison officials denied any involvement in her death, and stated that she had died after her hypertension suddenly worsened. The family was told to sign a document that stated Ms. Yang died under normal circumstances. When they refused to sign, the prison officials threatened to cremate Ms. Yang’s body and dispose of her belongings themselves.

Ms. Yang was arrested when she distributed informational fliers about Falun Dafa on August 31, 2009. She was later sentenced to a five-year prison term and transferred to Yunnan Province No. 2 Women’s Prison. 

Unspeakable Tortures Used on Steadfast Practitioners 

1. Stripped and Humiliated, Dragged for Hundreds of Yards Until Flesh Gone

Ms. Xin Shuhua, of Benxi City, Liaoning Province, was held in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang City. In December 2005 when the temperature was -30 Celsius, the guards stripped her naked and made her stand outdoors with many other prisoners to humiliate her. The guards also locked her naked in a restroom with the windows wide open, and handcuffed her to a radiator for 60 days. 

The guards switched to another torture tactic because Ms. Xin refused to renounce her faith. She was dragged back and forth between her cell and the cafeteria at meal times every day. On the way to the cafeteria, the guards dragged her downstairs by her shackled feet, with her face up, resulting in head injuries. On the way back to her cell, they dragged her upstairs face down by holding her handcuffs. The 300-meter-long pathway to the cafeteria was paved with gravel. Ms. Xin was severely injured and her blood stained the pathway and the staircase.

2. Subjected to Numerous Tortures and Eventually Killed 

Mr. Jiang Guobo was a former official in Weifang City, Shandong Province. After the persecution started, he was arrested a total of 13 times, put in a forced labor camp twice, and sentenced to five years in prison. Inside the prison, the guards shocked him with electric batons, chained him to an iron chair, put him on a Tiger Bench, and force-fed him unknown drugs and chili water. He nearly died several times because of the tortures. 

After Mr. Jiang returned home in 2014 from serving a five-year term for practicing Falun Gong, he suffered long-term complications from the involuntary drug administration in prison. He often felt sick and threw up. His abdomen was bloated and he had blood in his stool. He was very weak and dizzy and sometimes fainted. After struggling with poor health for seven years, Mr. Jiang passed away on April 29, 2021. He was 58.

Mr. Jiang once said, “I suffered unimaginable torture in the detention center. I was force-fed toxic drugs and strong spicy pepper water. My vomit was green pus. I was also tied to a cross for 20 days and let down only briefly from time to time. My spine was fractured from being rubbed against a wooden block. I couldn’t see with my right eye for a long time. I had trouble urinating and once suffered constipation for 26 days. I once lost nearly 100 pounds in just three weeks. I can’t remember how many times I was at death’s door.”

3. Men Whipped by Braided Metal Wires and Women Sexually Assaulted 

Officials from Yihezhuang Township, Zhuozhou City, Hebei Province went to Beijing on October 1, 2000 to bring back five local practitioners who had gone there to speak up for Falun Gong. Among them were Mr. Zhang Mo and his elderly mother. The officials beat Mr. Zhang with batons and braided metal wires. Upon hearing Mr. Zhang screaming, his mother became agonized. An official stabbed her with a syringe and injected her with unknown drugs. 

In 2001, officials from Yihezhuang Township arrested and tortured three female practitioners who went to Beijing to protest the persecution. The officials stripped the practitioners, held them down, and shocked their private parts, thighs, and breasts with electric batons. One of the practitioners became mentally deranged as a result. 

4. Professor Covered in Wounds and Mentally Injured After Tortures 

Ms. Zhu Hang was an associate professor at Dalian Polytechnic University, Liaoning Province. On August 30, 1999, she was thrown into the Yaojia Detention Center in Dalian City, Liaoning Province because she did the Faun Gong exercises. 

In the detention center, Ms. Zhu and other practitioners persevered in reciting the Falun Gong teachings and doing the Falun Gong exercises. As a result, the guards beat, handcuffed, and shackled Ms. Zhu, and deprived her of sleep for extended periods of time. They pricked her face, forehead and eyebrows with toothpicks and needles as soon as she closed her eyes. Sometimes they took turns slapping her in the face. As she was wearing shackles all the time, her ankles were swollen and developed infected, open sores. When the detention center contacted Ms. Zhu's husband to come and take her home, she was severely injured and had suffered a mental collapse.

Ms. Zhu was sent to a hospital for treatment of her physical injures. After she recovered, her family sent her to the Dalian Psychiatric Hospital, where she was forced to take narcotics that numbed the nervous system. If she refused to be injected, the doctors would tie up her arms and legs and force her to submit to the injections. 

5. Husband and Wife Tortured, Husband Dies as A Result 

Mr. Yu Zhou from Haidian District, Beijing, was a talented musician. He was a graduate of Peking University. He and his wife, Ms. Xu Na, were arrested on their way home on January 26, 2008 after giving a performance. He was taken to the Tongzhou District Detention Center in Beijing. In less than two weeks, on February 6, which fell on the Chinese New Year’s Eve, his family received a notice that he had died. He was 42.

Mr. Yu Zhou and Ms. Xu Na 

His wife Ms. Xu is a painter and also a Falun Gong practitioner. She was given five years for taking in practitioners from out of town who came to Beijing to appeal the persecution. She suffered multiple tortures in Beijing Women’s Prison. She said in an article, “How I wish that I was locked in Auschwitz concentration camp, and not a prison in China. A person could die quickly in the Nazis’ gas chamber, but in Beijing Women’s Prison, you lived but you’d rather die.” 

Related reports: 

In a Vegetative State and Denied Medical Parole for Two Years, Hebei Man Dies Two Months Before Prison Release

Woman Dies in Prison Two Days Before Scheduled Release

Schoolteacher Dies 10 Days Before Prison Term Ends, Family Suspects Organ Harvesting

Ms. Yang Cuifen Dies as a Result of Persecution

Ms. Xin Shuhua Tortured, Threatened with Organ Harvesting at Masanjia Forced Labor Camp

Torture I Suffered in Chinese Detention Centers and Prison

Arrested 13 Times, Mr. Jiang Guobo Now in Critical Condition

Associate Professor Zhu Hang Suffers Mental Collapse from Being Tortured at the Yaojia Detention Center in Dalian City, Liaoning Province