Nanjing University Graduate Jailed and Tortured to a Vegetative State

The Epoch Times news network reports: Mr. Chen Guanghui, 38 years old, a graduate from Nanjing University and an employee of the China Construction Bank, Lianyungang Branch, was sentenced in September 2002 to eight years in prison for practising Falun Gong and was incarcerated in the Suzhou Prison. On July 29, 2004, Mr. Chen sustained a serious head injury in prison. Since then he has been comatose and his life is hanging by a thread.

An Epoch Times reporter made a phone call to the 12th Section of Suzhou's First University Affiliated Hospital's thoracic surgery department. The doctor confirmed that Mr. Chen was taken to the hospital on July 29, 2004; the coma index was 3; he was actually already in a vegetative state. They are presently only providing him with life support treatment. The doctor was not optimistic about his condition.

Chen Guanghui's wife and younger sister now take turns looking after him. The phone line to his parents' home has been cut. We learned that he has a 14-year-old child.

According to the Minghui website [the Chinese version of Falun Gong website Clearwisdom], family members didn't receive any notice of his situation until August 4. When his family members went to see him, the Suzhou Prison policemen closely monitored them. At present, Chen Guanghui is in a deep coma, has a serious lung infection and he has a constant fever. His life is in critical condition.

The Suzhou Prison officials even attempted to move Mr. Chen from the hospital where he is currently a patient to the prison hospital where conditions are relatively poor. They definitely do not have the ability to treat a patient with a serious head injury.

So far it is not clear how Chen Guanghui sustained this head injury.

Publicly Refused to Renounce Falun Gong on Television

According to Minghui, Chen Guanghui started to practise Falun Gong in 1995. He was a hard worker and was always glad to help others and won wide praise in his work unit. Before the persecution of Falun Gong, Mr. Chen frequently used his own income to purchase tape recorders, video-recorders and other materials to help others learn about Falun Gong. He also organised Falun Gong practice sites in Xuzhou, Yancheng, Huaiyin and other impoverished local areas.

Around July 20, 1999 Mr. Chen went to the provincial government in Nanjing by himself, to appeal the wrongful persecution of Falun Gong. After returning to Lianyungang, his work unit suspended him.

In October 1999, when the leader of his work unit requested that he renounce Falun Gong and show repentance on television, Mr. Chen sternly refused.

In December 1999, persons from the Lianyungang City Police Department sentenced him to one and a half years in a forced labour camp.

After being released from the labour camp, a Beijing computer joint venture company hired him, paying him a high salary. He used all of his income to print Falun Gong truth clarification materials to expose the persecution.

In June 2001 the [Falun Gong] materials production site in Beijing was reported to the local government. Chen Guanghui was arrested and taken back to Lianyungang. On June 21, 2001, during an interrogation period, he successfully escaped. The Ministry of Public Security issued a nationwide warrant for his arrest.

In September 2001 Mr. Chen suddenly went missing. According to information obtained from his original work place, Chen Guanghui was arrested once more, on September 10, 2001. One year later, on September 12, 2002, he was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Nanjing City Baixia District People's Court.

It is estimated that since 2000, more than 50 Falun Gong practitioners have been imprisoned in the Suzhou Prison in Jiangsu Province.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/9/5/83416.html