Chinese Prison Covers up Death Caused by Torture

During the Beijing Olympics, Shoujun Zheng, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Liaozhong County of Liaoning Province, was found dead at the Liaoning Prison General Hospital on August 19.
Chinese Prison Covers up Death Caused by Torture
Zheng Enchong, a renowned human rights lawyer in China, predicted that farmers, who account for 70 percent of Chinese population, will become the leaders in quitting the CCP. (The Epoch Times)
11/27/2008
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/zheng.jpg" alt="Shoujun Zheng, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Liaozhong County of Liaoning Province, was tortured to death during the Beijing Olympic Games. (The Epoch Times)" title="Shoujun Zheng, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Liaozhong County of Liaoning Province, was tortured to death during the Beijing Olympic Games. (The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1829901"/></a>
Shoujun Zheng, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Liaozhong County of Liaoning Province, was tortured to death during the Beijing Olympic Games. (The Epoch Times)

During the Beijing Olympics, Shoujun Zheng, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Liaozhong County of Liaoning Province, was found dead at the Liaoning Prison General Hospital on August 19. Officials at the hospital described the death as having occurred due to “natural causes.”  After Zheng’s family questioned hospital officials regarding the “natural causes” surrounding his death, hospital staff at the prison injected medicines into his body in an effort to create the false impression that they had tried to save his life.

According to www.Minghui.org, 44-year-old Shoujun Zheng was a Falun Dafa practitioner. He was arrested on February 26, 2006, by the Panjiabao police as he was distributing pamphlets describing the principles of Falun Dafa and why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecutes Falun Dafa practitioners. Several months later, he was secretly sentenced to four years at Liaozhong Detention Center by the Liaozhong County Court.

The police did not notify Zheng’s family of his arrest and/or sentence. His wife had to use her own limited connections to find out where he was being detained by the police.

Except for having loss a lot of weight, Zheng was found to be in a very good state of mind when his wife and daughter visited him in June 2008. They were refused permission to see him afterwards, due to a new policy that prohibited all visits to prisoners during the Beijing Olympic Games. His family had never imagined that their visit in June would be the last time they would see Zheng alive.

His Family’s Grief

Unexpectedly, Zheng’s family received a phone call from the Dongling Prison in Shengyang City around 8:00 a.m. on August 19, saying that Zheng had been transferred to Dongling Prison on August 6 and was now very ill.

When his family arrived at the Liaoning Prison General Hospital they immediately requested to visit with him. Their requests were denied because of the new policy that prohibits visits to prisoners during the Beijing Olympics.

Twelve hours later, his family received a  phone call from the Dongling Prison and was informed that Zheng had been found dead by other prisoners and all rescue measures by prison authorities had failed to revive him.

Police Had Nothing to Explain

Zheng’s family rushed to the hospital the very next morning. His daughter could not even recognize her father’s body, which was almost naked except for a pair of shorts. The swollen and misshapen head, bruised face, enlarged abdomen, and clenched hands all indicated that Zheng did not die due to natural causes. There was no sign that prison authorities had made any attempt to save his life.

Zheng’s daughter had asked the police, “You said my dad died of natural causes, and that you had tried to save his life. How come there are no intravenous needle marks on his body or any other signs of treatment?” The police had nothing to say to her.

Zheng’s family also asked the police, “You told us Zheng had cirrhosis of the liver. How could a person die of cirrhosis within 12 hours? Why didn’t you notify us of his illness in advance? Why didn’t you find the problem during his initial medical examination when he was first sent to prison?” Again, they received no reply from the police.

Giving Injection to a Dead Body

Because the prison hospital has only limited space in the morgue, Dongling Prison told Zheng’s family that they would have to transfer Zheng’s body to the Wenguantun Crematorium’s morgue. When his family recovered Zheng’s body from the hospital in the afternoon, they were shocked to see that the body was different from the one they had seen only several hours ago. The once naked upper body was now covered with an old gray vest and his right arm had a bandage on it underneath which they found the entry point of an intravenous needle.

Zheng’s brother got angry and told the police, “How could you do such a thing as to give shot to a dead body?”

All of the police at the scene appeared to have known nothing and did not respond.

Original article in Chinese.