66-Year-Old Man Dies While Serving 11 Years for Suing Former Communist Regime Dictator
(Minghui.org)
Name: Yan XuguangChinese Name: 闫旭光Gender: MaleAge: 66City: ChaoyangProvince: LiaoningOccupation: N/ADate of Death: October 16, 2024Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 9, 2015Most Recent Place of Detention: Shenyang First Prison
Mr. Yan Xuguang, of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, died on October 16, 2024, while serving an 11-year term for suing Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese communist regime who ordered the persecution of his faith, Falun Gong. He was 66.
Back in May 2015, the Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate and Supreme People’s Court announced that they would accept all cases filed with them. This triggered a tidal wave of criminal lawsuits from Falun Gong practitioners around the world against Jiang Zemin’s instrumental role in initiating the persecution.
In Chaoyang City, a task force was established to prosecute Falun Gong practitioners who sued Jiang. The task force included Wang Dawei of the Liaoning Provincial Public Security Department, Jian Biao, Party secretary of Chaoyang Municipal Committee, and Li Chao, director of Chaoyang Municipal Public Security Bureau.
Over 300 practitioners were arrested in Chaoyang on November 9, 2015. Mr. Yan was seized by the police while riding a motorcycle on the street. The police located him by tracking his cellphone. As the detention centers and lockups in Chaoyang soon reached its capacity, the authorities had to transfer some practitioners in nearby cities including Huludao and Panjin.
Li ordered the local procuratorates and courts to expedite the prosecution process of the practitioners. Mr. Yan, who was a volunteer coordinator of local practitioners, was deemed a key target. Because of his previous involvement in exposing the persecution policy of “beating practitioners without talking about it,” issued by Wang Mingyu, the former Party secretary of Chaoyang Municipal Committee, Li set up surveillance of Mr. Yan’s cellphone not long after he took office in May 2013.
At the Chaoyang City Detention Center, Mr. Yan contracted an infectious disease. Despite his serious physical condition, the police refused to release him and transferred him to the Liaoning Provincial Detention Center Medical Division. They strictly controlled information regarding Mr. Yan’s physical condition and his whereabouts. When his family managed to find out about his situation and questioned the police about it, the police didn’t answer them directly, but asked how they knew about the information.
Mr. Yan while being held at the Liaoning Provincial Detention Center Medical Division
The Shuangta District Court held a hearing of Mr. Yan’s case on August 19, 2016 at the medical division. His lawyer entered a not guilty plea for him. Although prosecutor Bao Lei of Shuangta District Procuratorate failed to present any evidence to show how Mr. Yan had violated the law, the presiding judge Zhang Xiaohua still sentenced him to 11 years in prison. He was later transferred to the division for the elderly and infirm at Shenyang First Prison.
In addition to Mr. Yan, three other practitioners who were sentenced for suing Jiang also passed away due to prison torture. Mr. Li Guojun, who was sentenced to 11 years, was released on the verge of death from the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison in November 2019; she died six months later, at the age of 53. Ms. Liu Shuhua, who received a three-year term, died three days after she was carried home unconscious by prison guards in mid-October 2021; she was 76. Mr. Liu Dianyuan, who was sentenced to 11.5 years in 2016 at the age of 78, died in the Shenyang First Prison on February 10, 2024.
When Mr. Yan’s family visited him in October 2023, he was still in good spirits. They didn’t visit him for a year after that. (It’s not clear whether they were unable to visit him themselves or the prison denied his family visit.) On October 12, 2024, they suddenly received a call from the prison, saying that Mr. Yan was in critical condition. When they rushed to the Shenyang Tenth Hospital, he was already unconscious.
The prison released Mr. Yan on medical parole two days later. He was taken back to Chaoyang City in an ambulance and admitted to the Chaoyang Tuberculosis Hospital. He passed away two days later on October 16. As his mother is her 90s, his family hasn’t broke the news of his death to her, fearing that she will have difficulty coping.
In addition to the lengthy prison term, Mr. Yan was arrested several other times and severely tortured while in custody.
Following an arrest on January 22, 2003, he was tortured by officers of the Shuangta District Domestic Security Division and given an unknown term at the Xidayingzi Forced Labor Camp. Attempting to force him to renounce his faith so as to achieve a high “transformation rate”, the guards deprived him of sleep for several days and shocked him with electric batons. He was on the verge of death.
Mr. Yan was arrested again on June 30, 2011 during a gathering of local practitioners. He passed out from the police beating and was later released after he was forced to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong.
Related Reports:
Chaoyang, Liaoning Province: 300+ Arrested, 54 Tried, 14 Awaiting Trial for Suing Jiang ZeminHow One Prison Warden Carries Out the Persecution of Falun Gong in Shenyang No. 1 Prison