Chien-Min Chung

Wednesday November 28, 2001

Plain clothes police remove a Falun Gong protester from Tiananmen Square in Beijing July 1, 2001. Seven members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement have died following abuse in Chinese police custody, the group's U.S.-based information centre has said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Seven members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement have died following abuse in Chinese police custody, the group's U.S.-based information centre has said.

The centre said the seven, from different provinces around China, had died from abuse in custody spanning hard labour, torture and beatings.

One follower died after police pushed him down four flights of stairs, the centre said in a statement seen late on Tuesday.

Chinese police contacted on Wednesday declined to comment.

China banned Falun Gong in 1999, branding it an "[Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted]", after the [...] group shocked leaders with a mass protest around the Zhongnanhai leadership compound in Beijing demanding official recognition of their movement.

Last week, 35 foreign followers unfurled a banner in Tiananmen Square to protest against the "violence and terror" inflicted on Falun Gong followers in China. The foreigners were deported the following day.

[...]

Falun Gong has said more than 50,000 adherents have been sent to prisons, labour camps and mental hospitals in China since it was banned.

[...]

Chinese authorities have acknowledged several deaths of Falun Gong members in custody, but say most resulted from suicide or illness.

[...]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/011128/80/cjolc.html

Posting date: 11/29/2001
Original article date: 11/29/2001
Category: News & Media Reports

 Yearly Archive  Printer Version

_____Related Articles_____ A List of Criminals Who Are Responsible for the Death of Falun Dafa Practitioners in Qu County, Sichuan Province [11/29/2001] DPA: Falun Gong Claims Eight More Deaths in Chinese Police Custody [11/29/2001] Dafa Practitioner Mo Shuijin Murdered by the 610 Office of Changan Company and the Chongqing Female Labor Camp [11/28/2001] Dafa Practitioner Zhe Liansheng Tortured to Death [11/28/2001] Falun Dafa Practitioner Wu Haiyou Pushed Down the Stairs and Killed by Xipaotai Police Station Personnel in Yantai City, Shandong Province [11/26/2001] Female Dafa Practitioner, Zhang Sufang, is Tortured to Death at Chongqing Women's Forced Labor Camp in Sichuan Province [11/25/2001] Details About the Murder of My Brother, Chen Aizhong, At Tangshan City's No. 1 Forced Labor Camp, Part I [11/24/2001] Four More Falun Gong Practitioners Are Tortured to Death in Mainland China [11/23/2001] Head of Falun Gong Assistant Center Wu Zhanri Was Abused to Death Soon After His Detention in 1999 [11/22/2001] Reports of Two More Dead For Practicing Falun Gong In China [11/22/2001]