(Minghui.org)
Name: Zhang GuoyouChinese Name: 张国友Gender: MaleAge: 76City: FushunProvince: LiaoningOccupation: N/ADate of Death: August 5, 2022Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 26, 2015Most Recent Place of Detention: Gongzhuling Prison
Mr. Zhang Guoyou, a resident in Xinbin County, Fushun City, Liaoning Province, was released from prison in 2019 after serving three years for his faith in Falun Gong. He had systemic edema, difficulty breathing and heart failure at the time of his release. He struggled with failing health for the next three years and passed away on August 5, 2022. He was 76.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline with five sets of slow-moving exercises. It was introduced to the public in 1992 and soon spread across the country. Due to its unprecedented popularity, with more practitioners than registered Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members, Jiang Zemin, the former CCP head, ordered a full-scale persecution campaign in July 1999 to eradicate Falun Gong from China.
Since then, Mr. Zhang, his wife, Ms. Li Yueqing, and countless other Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to non-stop arrests, harassment, incarceration and torture.
In 2015, the Chinese Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced that regular citizens can be plaintiffs in criminal cases and that the two agencies would guarantee the registration and processing of any complaints filed with them. To exercise their legal right, many practitioners sued Jiang Zemin, demanding to hold him accountable for the persecution. Instead of addressing their concern, however, the authorities arrested and sentenced many practitioners as a result.
On June 26, 2015, Mr. Zhang and six other local practitioners in Xinbin County, Liaoning Province, including Mr. Zhang Fuchun, Ms. Guo Qingfeng, Ms. Yan Guangling, Ms. Wang Cuilian, Ms. Deng Yuqing and Ms. Sun Xiuzhen, were arrested when they went to a post office in Sankeyushu Town in Tonghua County, Jilin Province (about 25 miles away) to mail their criminal complaints against Jiang.
The police took them to the Sankeyushu Police Station. Wang Yiguan, the head of Tonghua County Domestic Security Office, interrogated and intimidated them.
On the next day, led by a police officer in Xinbin, the police from Tonghua ransacked the practitioners’ homes. The practitioners were transferred to the Tonghua City Detention Center in the afternoon, after a day at the police station.
Mr. Zhang Guoyou and Ms. Yan were released on bail on July 17, after each paid the police 10,000 yuan bail bond.
Upon returning home, Mr. Zhang Guoyou began to vomit blood due to the abuse he suffered at the detention center.
The Tonghua County Procuratorate indicted Mr. Zhang Guoyou, Mr. Zhang Fuchun, Mr. Deng and Ms. Yan on October 14, 2015. The other three practitioners, Mr. Guo, Ms. Wang and Ms. Sun, were cleared of prosecution and released.
The four indicted practitioners stood trial at Tonghua County Court on November 23, 2015 and were sentenced to three years each by presiding judge Yu Yang on March 28, 2016. Mr. Zhang Guoyou and Ms. Yan, who were previously released on bail, were taken back into custody at Tonghua City Detention Center on March 31.
To prevent Mr. Zhang Guoyou from appealing the verdict, the detention center guards deceived him into writing a note “I agree with the sentence and I will not appeal.” Mr. Zhang later came to his senses and asked for the note back, but the guards refused to return it. He could no longer find his verdict either, which was needed for him to file the appeal. To protest the persecution, he started a hunger strike on April 5, 2016.
Mr. Zhang Guoyou and Mr. Deng were later take to the Gongzhuling Prison. Mr. Zhang Fuchun was transferred to Jilin Prison and Ms. Yan to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison.
When Mr. Zhang Guoyou was released in 2019, he suffered extremely poor health and passed away three years later.
Past Persecution
Both Mr. Zhang and his wife took up Falun Gong in 1997. Before that, he often coughed out blood and had very low energy level. His wife also had many ailments, including kidney stones, cervical bone hyperplasia and sciatica. Both of them regained their health after learning the practice.
A police officer went to Mr. Zhang’s home at 9 p.m. on September 14, 2000 and asked him whether he still practiced Falun Gong. Mr. Zhang responded that his health recovered thanks to the practice and that he wouldn’t give it up. The police arrested him and took him to a local detention center on the next day, after holding him at the police station overnight.
For half of his two-month detention, Mr. Zhang was forced to harvest rice in the nearby village. His wife was ordered to pay 1,500 yuan bail bond, 500 yuan fine and 150 yuan food expense. She ended up selling the cattle from the family farm in exchange for her husband's release.
Both Mr. Zhang and his wife were arrested on February 18, 2002 after being reported for making informational materials about Falun Gong. The police extorted 300 yuan from Ms. Li’s sister and then released the couple.
Mr. Zhang was arrested again at 4 a.m. on May 21, 2002. The police beat him at the police station, causing his nose to bleed. He was taken to the detention center where inmate Wang Feng ordered him to recite the detention center rules, but he refused to comply. In retaliation, Wang kicked him hard in the hip. He was knocked down and crippled for a month.
After one month at the detention center, Mr. Zhang was taken to the Wujiabaozi Forced Labor Camp to serve a three-year term, during which time he was subjected to all kinds of torture for upholding Falun Gong.
Related reports:
Four Liaoning Residents Sentenced to Prison for Trying to Sue Former Chinese Dictator
Tonghua County Police Violate Practitioners’ Civil Rights for Suing Jiang Zemin
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