Canada: Falun Dafa Practitioners Gather in Front of Chinese Embassy to Request Immediate Release of Illegally Detained Falun Dafa Practitioners in Jilin City Prison

Falun Dafa practitioners in Canada held a rally and press conference at noon of October 28, 2003 in front of the Chinese Embassy to expose the torture of one hundred Falun Dafa practitioners in Jilin City Prison, to request the immediate release of all illegally detained Falun Dafa practitioners, and to call for the rescue of Mr. Liu Chengjun. Falun Dafa practitioners have called upon the Canadian government to help with the urgent rescue.

According to Clearwisdom reports on October 26 and 27, most of the one hundred practitioners detained in Jilin City Prison are on hunger strikes to protest the brutal persecution toward Falun Dafa practitioners. The situation is very serious right now. We have confirmed that Falun Dafa practitioner Liu Chengjun's life is in imminent danger. The World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong reported on October 27 that Mr. Liu Chengjun was tortured nearly to death in Jilin City Prison and is now unconscious in the hospital. The hospital wants to discharge him for fear of being held responsible for his death.

Countless facts show that the persecution of Falun Dafa by Jiang and his regime is based totally on lies. The cruelty and widespread nature of the persecution is covered up and glossed over by the lies of the government's propaganda, so that people who do not know the truth are ignoring this brutal persecution. In order to free people from these deceptions and to uphold basic human virtues, Liu Chengjun and other Falun Dafa practitioners revealed the truth by tapping into the state TV system and were cruelly persecuted.

We call for the international community to clearly recognise this evil, extend your helping hands, and stop this persecution.

On March 24, 2003, Mr. Liu Chengjun was arrested in his relative's home in Songyuan County, Jilin Province. The police burned his hands and shot him in the thigh. In September 2003, Liu was sentenced without due process to 19 years in prison and detained in Jilin City Prison. The heinous crimes being perpetrated in Jilin City prison were recently exposed by the World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, which has learnt that Mr. Liu's family members are being closely watched by police in order to prevent them from exposing the truth to the outside world.

According to Clearwisdom reports, in order to make Falun Dafa practitioners give in, police in Jilin City Prison perpetrated numerous cruel tortures, including brutal beatings, sleep deprivation, tying people to their beds, etc. In order to try to force Falun Dafa practitioner Zhang Hongwei to give up his faith, police tied him to a bed for 58 days. Police also deprived Falun Dafa practitioner Zheng Weidong of sleep for over 7 days.

According to incomplete statistics, the number of Falun Dafa practitioners tortured to death since Jiang initiated the large scale persecution in 1999 has exceeded 800, 40% from the 3 provinces in the Northeast and 102 from Jilin Province alone.