Thirty-nine-year-old Pharmacist Hu Dali Died as a Result of Torture and Abuse at Dujun City Fourth Prison, Guizhou Province

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Hu Dali was from Xiuwen County, Guizhou Province. After graduating from Zunyi Medical School, he landed a job as a pharmacist with the Xiuwen County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. Since he began the practice of Falun Gong in 1996, he always required of himself to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. While other pharmacists enjoyed fat kickbacks from drug vendors, he always turned down such opportunities. Even though many of his colleagues stole medicines for their family members and friends, he insisted on seeing prescriptions before dispensing any drugs. Everyone at the hospital looked up to him as a role model because of his noble character.

Such an upstanding young man suffered tremendously, simply because of his belief in Falun Gong. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to openly persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, the Guizhou police first incarcerated Hu Dali in a forced labour camp from November 1999 to May 2002 and then sentenced him to ten years in prison in August 2003. He was tortured and abused in detention, and died in prison on January 19th, 2011, at the age of 39.

Hu Dali went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong in November 1999. He was arrested and taken back to the local detention centre where he was jailed for 15 days. To punish Mr. Hu for appealing and to apply pressure tactics, Xiuwen County Government officials withdrew all the end-of-year bonuses promised to employees at his hospital, including the entire health system in the county.

Not long after, other local practitioners also decided to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Suspecting that Hu Dali was the organizer, the local police interrogated him for a whole night while he was in handcuffs. He refused to cooperate with the police. Even though the Chinese New Year was just around the corner, the police still sent him to the Zhongba Labour Camp, to serve a three-year term.

Hu Dali’s family lived a hard life. After his younger sister finished college with his financial support she was determined to work hard to provide a better life for her parents. But she was fired from her job due to her brother’s Falun Gong practice. As a result, the whole family was stricken with financial hardship.

Hu Dali’s fiancee visited him a few times during the first year of his labour camp stay, but eventually, unable to bear the pressure of the persecution, she called off the engagement.

When the camp officials decided to release Hu Dali in May 2002, they ordered that he write statements to denounce Falun Gong, which he firmly rejected. At the same time, he didn’t want his hospital employers to be implicated, so he resigned after his release. He returned to his hometown to help around his parents’ home.

Hu Dali went to Guiyang City in September 2002 to work odd jobs. The local police harassed the family at home. They also sent some of his former hospital colleagues to Guiyang to look for him. Hu Dali was soon arrested; no one had since heard from him directly. In July 2003 his family received a call from a person who told them that he was once detained in the same cell as Hu, and that his legs were almost completely paralyzed due to torture. The informant also said that guard Liao Shilun planned to launch another around of torture of Hu Dali, despite the fact that Mr. Hu had to use crutches to get around. After learning the news, Hu’s family immediately requested to visit him, but their request was refused.

In August 2003, the Wudang District Court and the Guiyang 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) secretly sentenced Hu Dali to 10 years in prison, without informing his family. When his parents finally heard the news they almost collapsed. They asked to see Mr. Hu at the Guiyang First Detention Centre but were turned down every time they made the request. To fund the numerous trips from their home to the detention centre, they had to borrow money from family and friends. Not only did they not get to see their son, they also accumulated a lot of debt.

Hu Dali’s mother Zhang Guangxian, also a Falun Gong practitioner, requested numerous times to have her son released on medical parole, to no avail. Centre officials eventually transferred Mr. Hu to the Dujun City Fourth Prison where he was brutally beaten and once had to be sent to Guiyang Police Hospital for emergency treatment.

Zhang Guangxian had healed of all her illnesses after she began her cultivation practice. Like her son, she suffered from the persecution. Once, several policemen tried to force her to press her fingerprint on a pre-written statement denouncing Falun Gong, but she firmly refused to cooperate with them. Ms. Zhang died at Xiuwen County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital on the night of February 22nd, 2004.

The prison called Hu Dali’s family and told them to pick him up on January 19th, 2011. When three of his siblings arrived there, Hu Dali was already dead. The guards claimed illness was the cause of the death. His family was forced by the authorities to agree to have his body cremated that same day. The next day they brought back his ashes.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/1/28/235421.html