The Persecution and Death of a Good Man, Mr. Lu Yuping

Mr. Lu Yuping, 50, was a Falun Gong practitioner from Daxinganling, Heilongjiang Province. Because of his belief in Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. On May 30th, 2009, he died in Tailai Prison, where he had been subjected to numerous tortures.

On May 23rd, officials from Tailai Prison notified Mr. Lu's family of his critical condition. However, when his family went to ask for his release, officials from the local Songling District 610 Office¹, the Political and Judiciary Committee, and the Songling District Party Committee turned down their request. They did the same thing back in April 2007 when his family requested he be released on medical parole.

Lu Yuping had worked in an education and tax office, and was a secretary at the Songling District Land Tax Bureau in Daxinanling District. He used to suffer from pulmonary oedema, but starting in 1995, when he began to practise Falun Gong, he became mentally and physically very healthy. He conducted himself strictly according to the principles of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance. For example, he returned items that he had taken from his workplace before, took the initiative to resolve past conflicts with his co workers, and worked very hard and wasn't corrupt. He was widely recognized as a model of honesty by his superiors at the Land Tax Bureau and given the title of "Model Worker for Honesty and Uprightness" at the county level in 1996.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, the Political and Judiciary Committee of the Songling District, along with the police and other staff from the Songling District Land Tax Bureau, threatened Mr. Lu in order to make him give up his practice of Falun Gong. However, he steadfastly held on to his belief. Mr. Lu's mother, who is in her 70s, always taught her son to be a good person, but she was pressured until she knelt down in front of her son and tearfully begged him, "My son, let's not be good people for now." In 1999, people from the Discipline Examination Committee in Daxinganling set up a special group to investigate Mr. Lu in order to find out all about his activities at work and during his free time. Announcing the final results of the investigation, Liang Xingzhong, Daxinganling Land Tax Bureau Head, said, "He has worked in this area for many years but has never shown any signs of corruption and has never broken any laws." When Songling District Tax Bureau Head Han visited him at the detention centre, he cried and said, "Lu is such a good official!" While in court, the judge said, "No one is angry with you." However, the person in charge of Mr. Lu's case said, "Unless you tell me that you will give up practising Falun Gong, I will sentence you under some pretense." Mr. Lu was arrested in September 1999, and in October, the Songling District Court sentenced him to three years at Taila Sankeshu Prison for allegedly posing a threat to "National Security." On February 22nd, 2002, he was finally released.

On May 19th, 2002, he went to appeal his three-year term. Ma Yong, along with a group of people from the Criminal Police Team in Jiujiang Farm, Neijiang City, arrested him again. He was then taken to the Jiagedaqi District Detention Centre. Wang Hua, who was on duty, searched him in the duty room and found over 200 yuan² in cash, which he confiscated. Mr. Lu was searched again by several plain clothes officers and then pushed into the interrogation room. He was handcuffed behind his back to a metal chair³, with his feet and body tied to the chair. He was wearing one layer of clothes and his shoes were removed.

Ma Yong ordered his group of people to torture Mr. Lu and humiliate him. They beat him using a special leather whip, their leather belts, the soles of their shoes, and handcuffs. When he passed out, they poured cold water over him to revive him and then beat him again. They released him from the chair and immobilized his head, hands, and feet, stripped him naked and struck his back hard with a leather belt and whips until they were almost broken. Then they handcuffed him behind his back again, beat him in the back, and struck the back of hands and feet. When his hands became swollen, they took off the handcuffs, pressed his hands on the table, and rolled them around. They then handcuffed him to the metal chair again, but Mr. Lu by then had difficulty breathing and almost fainted. Ma Yong continued the torture, stuffing two burning cigarettes into Mr. Lu's nose, and Dong Weiling, the person in charge of the Songling District 610 Office, asked Mr. Lu questions. The two burning cigarettes extinguished very quickly. Next, they took a bottle of alcohol, forced Mr. Lu's mouth open, and poured it down his throat, knowing that Falun Gong practitioners are not recommended to drink alcohol. Mr. Lu suffered from 10 a.m. to midnight. When they realized that they wouldn't get a confession, Ma ordered Wang Hua, the guard on duty, to take the Mr. Lu to a death row cell.

In October 2002, officials from the Jiagedaqi District Court in Daxinganling secretly tried Mr. Lu Yuping, sentencing him to 14 years in prison on trumped up charges. Mr. Lu appealed according to the law. The judge said that Mr. Lu's family members and lawyer could not come to the court to defend him. At the court hearings, several procedural abnormalities were noted. For example, during the court hearing, Mr. Lu's right to appeal was taken away, and he was obstructed in his attempt to appeal to the superior court. The court finally sentenced him based on false testimony. When Mr. Lu explained that his confession had been coerced through torture, the judge refused to acknowledge it.

In March 2003, Mr. Lu was taken to Tailai Prison, where he continued to suffer from torture.

In March 2005, a few inmates, instigated by the guards, brutally tortured him in order to force him to do hard labour.

On March 22nd and 23rd, 2007, officials of the Tailai Prison held a meeting. They made use of Chen Bin, a former practitioner who had turned into a collaborator, to try to brainwash Falun Gong practitioners in prison. Mr. Lu pointed out Chen Bin's errors in writing from four different angles. After the meeting, a practitioner from Qiqihar, Liu Jingming, was tortured to death. In order to cover up Liu's death, all of the practitioners were put under 24-hour surveillance. They were monitored even going to the toilet and were not allowed to have visitors.

On April 7th, 2007, Mr. Lu developed sudden symptoms of diarrhoea. He couldn't eat anything and became emaciated. He was transferred to the Tailai Hospital for treatment, and x-rays showed that he had developed "double pulmonary tuberculosis and an infection." At 3:40 pm on May 30th, 2009, Lu Yuping died at Tailai Prison.

Related article:

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/9/5/89246.html

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

2. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

3. Iron Chair: The "Iron chair" is made of iron pipes. Victims are restrained on the iron chairs with both arms and legs tied for a long period of time, see illustration at http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/9/17577.html

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/6/2/202081.html