Zhang Youqing, born in 1944, was a construction worker in Longxi County, Gansu Province. In December 1998, Zhang and his wife started to practise Falun Gong. After New Year's Day in 2001, the couple went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested in Tiananmen Square. They were thrown into jail. Later they were taken to their local police station. Zhang was sentenced to six months of labour education. After he finished serving his term and returned home, he continued practising Falun Gong.
On January 25, 2002, policeman Song Jianhua led several other policemen and broke into
Zhang's home and asked if he and his wife were still practising Falun Gong. Zhang said, "Yes." A policeman said ferociously, "If you continue to practise, we will send both of you to jail." Then they left. However, they returned just several minutes later and forcibly took the couple away. They jailed them in the Longxi County Detention Centre and delivered a notice to the couple's family stating the couple was detained on criminal charges.
On April 22, a release notice was issued for Zhang. However, Song Jianhua said, "The higher authorities did not instruct us to release Falun Gong practitioners and we can't release him according to the release notice." They also said that they would keep the Falun Gong practitioners in jail until they died.
In May, Zhang contracted diarrhoea and had to use the toilet very frequently. At the same time, he lost his appetite and could not eat anything. His health deteriorated daily.
In September, Song Jianhua interrogated Zhang, despite the fact that he was already very weak. Song asked Zhang if he would still keep on practising, Zhang said "yes" and also questioned Song, "Why don't you release me as I was already granted a release notice?" Upon hearing this, Song started to beat Zhang. When Zhang finally walked out of the interrogation room, his face was very pale and he was shaky on his feet. Several days later, he became incontinent. Not wanting to take any responsibility, the detention centre transferred him to a jail.
On November 1, 2001, the jail informed Zhang's family to pick him up. At that time, Zhang could no longer stand up and he was emaciated. Still, the jail forced Zhang's son to write a so-called guarantee letter on behalf of his father. They then took Zhang's hand and pressed his fingerprints on the guarantee letter. Three days after his return home, Zhang passed away.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/2/10/67056.html
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