(Minghui.org)

Name: Ren RujieChinese Name: 任茹杰Gender: FemaleAge: 74City: HarbinProvince: HeilongjiangOccupation: Retired employee of the post and telecommunications bureauDate of Death: Early March 2024Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 9, 2018Most Recent Place of Detention: Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison

A Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, resident became incapacitated after serving four years for her faith in Falun Gong. After struggling with failing health for over a year, Ms. Ren Rujie passed away in early March 2024. She was 74.

Ms. Ren, a retired employee of the Tahe County Post and Telecommunications Bureau, took up Falun Gong in 1998. She thanked the practice for helping her better handle interpersonal conflicts and become more gentle. 

Ms. Ren later moved to Russia with her son to do business and stopped practicing Falun Gong. In late 1999, she was found to have late-stage cancer with severe complications. The doctor predicted that she only had a few months left. With no other options, she resumed practicing Falun Gong and recovered.

In November 2000, Ms. Ren went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested. She told the police how she recovered from cancer by practicing Falun Gong. The police were touched by her story and released her. 

Ms. Ren returned to Russia in 2001. She distributed Falun Gong materials every day and talked to the Chinese tourists about how the communist regime had been persecuting Falun Gong. She stayed there for eight years until she was deported in 2009. After she returned to Harbin, the local police frequently harassed her. As she was on the police’s blacklist, she always had her bag searched when she took the train.

Ms. Ren was arrested again during a police sweep of over 100 practitioners on November 9, 2018. Officers of Railroad Domestic Security Division broke into her home and confiscated her computer, printer, Falun Gong books, bank card and over 10,000 yuan in cash. 

Although Ms. Ren managed to escape on the early morning of November 10, the police installed tracking devices at her daughter and sister’s homes and arrested her on November 23 after she made a call earlier that day.

Ms. Ren was held at the Harbin City Second Detention Center and had her arrest approved on December 24. The police submitted her case to the Harbin Railroad Transportation Procuratorate in March 2019. When she appeared in the Harbin Railroad Transportation Court in May 2019, both the judge and prosecutor attempted to force her to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. She refused to comply.

Ms. Ren was sentenced to four years in prison on June 7, 2019. Her appeal was rejected by the Railroad Intermediate Court. She was transferred to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on July 16.

Due to the physical abuse, mental distress, and poor living conditions, Ms. Ren developed some physical symptoms during detention, yet the authorities declined to grant her medical parole or allow her family to visit her, saying it was because she refused to renounce her faith.

Although Ms. Ren survived the four-year prison term, she became incapacitated when she was released in late 2022. She never recovered and passed away in March 2024.

Related Report:

70-Year-Old Woman Sentenced to Four Years for Her Faith