(Minghui.org)
Name: Zhou XianchengChinese Name: 周显成Gender: MaleAge: 84City: MachengProvince: HubeiOccupation: FarmerDate of Death: January 25, 2025Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 28, 2021Most Recent Place of Detention: Fanjiatai Prison
An 84-year-old Macheng City, Hubei Province resident passed away on January 25, 2025, shortly after he finished serving a second prison term for practicing Falun Gong.
After the Chinese communist regime began persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, Mr. Zhou Xiancheng was arrested at least nine times, the last two of which were followed by prison sentences.
His second to last arrest took place on March 15, 2015, when he was 75 years old. He was arrested by officers from the Pantang Police Station in Wuhan City, the capital of Hubei, for talking to people about Falun Gong there. He was detained at the Xinzhou District Detention Center in Wuhan. The Xinzhou District Court held two hearings of his case on June 15 and July 17, 2015, before sentencing him to a three-year prison term on July 20. His family were kept in the dark about the entire prosecution process.
While serving time in Fanjiatai Prison, Mr. Zhou was beaten by the inmates and hospitalized. When his family demanded to visit him in February 2016, the prison requested that they obtain a letter from the 610 Office verifying that they didn’t practice Falun Gong themselves. It’s not clear whether the family did so.
Mr. Zhou was released on March 5, 2018, only to be arrested again at his home in Macheng, by officers from the Pantang Police Station at around 8 p.m. on March 28, 2021. Despite the fact that his wife had Alzheimer’s disease and all of their children were working out of town, the police nonetheless took Mr. Zhou to the Liuji Brainwashing Center in Xinzhou District, Wuhan.
Mr. Zhou was transferred to the Xinzhou District Detention Center weeks later. Although the detention center initially rejected his admission due to his advanced age, they were forced to take him by Zhu Xingang, head of the Xinzhou District Police Department.
Mr. Zhou was later secretly sentenced to an unknown prison term and taken to the Fanjiatai Prison to serve time. He was released not long ago, only to die shortly after.