Primary School Teacher Ms. Zhou Zequn Dies as a Result of Persecution

Ms. Zhou Zequn, 70, a retired teacher from the Sipaifang Primary School in the Jiangjin District, died as a result of torture on May 2nd, 2014. She had been sentenced to a four-year prison term in 2011, due to her belief in Falun Gong.

Ms. Zhou was arrested at her home on December 5th, 2011, by over a dozen officers from the local Domestic Security Division and police station, and Liu Zenghuai from the Comprehensive Administration Office in the Jijiang Residential Office. She was held at the Jiangjin District Detention Centre and later sentenced to four years in the Chongqing Women's Prison.

Guards Evade Responsibility

Ms. Zhou's family was notified by prison guards on February 18th, 2014, to come and take her home. They family found out that Ms. Zhou had been tortured. She could no longer walk and had blood in her urine and stools. She had also been injected with unidentified drugs that destroy the central nervous system. She had lost her memory and could no longer recognize any words.

Officials at Chongqing Women's Prison didn't want to be held responsible for Ms. Zhou's condition, so they informed her family that she would be released on medical parole. Her family took her to Xicheng Hospital for treatment.

Officials from the Jianjin District 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and the local residential office monitored everyone who went to see her in the hospital. The local officials also threatened her family to keep other practitioners from seeing her.

Persecution History

Ms. Zhou had previously been sentenced to one year of forced labour. Liu Zenghuai from the Jiangjin District Residential Office ordered his underlings to hit her with a car a few times, expecting that she would be killed. Fortunately they weren't successful.

Another time, Deputy Party Secretary Wang Fenghua, from the Jiangjin District Political and Legal Affairs Committee, ordered four people to wait outside Ms. Zhou's home and throw unknown substances in her face when she left her home.

Ms. Zhou was frequently harassed, resulting in her becoming mentally unstable for a long period of time. She became unable to recognize even members of her own family. With help from practitioners she later recovered and started practising Falun Gong again.

Ms. Zhou Zequn was once recognized as an "Outstanding Teacher" in China.

Summary of Key Persecution Facts:
Name: Zhou Zequn (周泽群)
Gender: Female
Age: 70
Address: Jijiang Town, Jiangjin District, Chongqing, Sichuan Province
Occupation: Retired Teacher from Sipaifang Primary School in the Jiangjin District, Chongqing
Date of Death: May 2nd, 2014
Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 5th, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Chongqing Women's Prison (重庆市女子监狱)
City: Chongqing
Province: Sichuan
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, forced injections/drug administration, imprisonment, home ransacking, interrogation, detention.