(Minghui.org)
Name: Lai YuanchangChinese Name: 赖元昌Gender: MaleAge: 74City: N/AProvince: ChongqingOccupation: N/ADate of Death: January 1, 2023Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 7, 2022Most Recent Place of Detention: Jiangjin District Detention Center
A 74-year-old man died four months after he was arrested for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Lai Yuanchang, of Chongqing, was reported in 2020 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. Although he escaped from being arrested, he was forced to live away from home to hide from the police. Unable to find Mr. Lai, the police frequently harassed his daughter.
On September 7, 2022, one month before the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Congress, a group of officers from the Degan Town Police Station descended at the home of Mr. Lai’s daughter. They smashed the door, broke in, and arrested Mr. Lai.
At the Jiangjin District Detention Center, Mr. Lai’s health quickly deteriorated, likely due to the torture for not renouncing his faith. He was rushed to the Jiangjin District People’s Hospital on December 31, 2022, and passed away the next day.
Upon learning of his death, Mr. Lai’s family rushed to the hospital and demanded an explanation from the police, who then agreed to pay the family 90,000 yuan as compensation. Mr. Lai’s body had been buried at the time of writing.
In the persecution of Falun Gong, Mr. Lai was incarcerated three times for a total of eight years. He was given a two-year labor camp term after being arrested on June 3, 2004. On November 9, 2007, only a year after he was released, he was arrested again for distributing Falun Gong materials.
His next arrest was on June 3, 2008, also for distributing Falun Gong materials. After one year at the Lanshan Detention Center, he was sentenced to three years at the Yongchuan Prison. The guards forced him to stand outdoors with thin clothes in the winter and burnt his legs if he moved. They also poked his eyes.
In order to force Mr. Lai to renounce Falun Gong, the guards forced him to sit outdoors, usually in the snow, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day during the entire winter of 2010. If he dozed off, the inmates would burn his eyes with a lit cigarette. If he didn’t sit up straight, they would beat him.
When his term expired on May 20, 2012, the 610 Office agents didn’t allow him to go home but held him in another detention facility for an unknown period of time.
Mr. Lai was arrested again on October 2, 2013, for distributing Falun Gong materials. He was later sentenced to another three-year term by the Jiangjin District Court.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Jiao Yong (焦勇), secretary of Zhiping Town Residential Committee: +86-13500374609Li Changjun (李常军), chief of Zhiping Town Police Station: +86-23-47621042Du Yong (杜勇), chief of Degan Town Police Station: +86-23-47833103Long Kai (龙开), officer of Degan Town Police Station
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
Related report:
Yongchuan Prison in Chongqing Draws Blood from Unwilling Falun Gong Practitioners
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