Yu Donghui, 68, Dies Due to Persecution

Name: Yu Donghui
Gender: Male
Age: 68
Address: Liaoyuan, Jilin Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Death: December 17th, 2011
Date of Most Recent Arrest: October, 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Siping Prison
City: Siping
Province: Jilin
Persecution Suffered: Detention, forced labour and reform, extortion, imprisonment, brainwashing

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Yu Donghui was sentenced by a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) court in 2008 to nine years in prison, and was then detained in the Siping Prison. He died on December 17th at the age of 68, after being subjected to severe persecution.

Mr. Yu Donghui had previously suffered from many illnesses before he began practising Falun Gong. He started to practise Falun Gong in March 1995, and subsequently, all of his illnesses disappeared. He became healthy, and was well known as a good person. After the CCP started persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in 1999, Mr. Yu was arrested, detained and persecuted on several occasions.

In March 2002, Mr. Yu was arrested by Domestic Security Division officers, then sentenced to three years in a forced labour camp. He was taken to the Sixth Division of Chaoyanggou Forced Labour Camp in Changchun, Jilin Province. Mr. Yu was in excellent health prior to his arrest. After less than one year of detention, he'd developed a contagious skin disease as a result of torture. His whole body was swollen, and he even had to use makeshift tubing when urinating. One morning, he suddenly fainted. The forced labor camp officials didn't send him to a hospital immediately, but called his family, who lived far away in Liaoyuan. When his family arrived, the camp ordered them to pay an extortion fee of 3,000 yuan¹ before Mr. Yu was allowed to leave. His family hadn't brought that amount of money, so labour camp guards followed them all the way home to Liaoyuan to get the money, and then demanded an additional 2,000 yuan to cover their tips and travel expenses.

In 2008, Liaoyuan police and Domestic Security Division officers conducted large-scale arrests of local Falun Gong practitioners during the Beijing Olympic Games. Mr. Yu and other practitioners were arrested by officers from the Nankang Police Department on May 11th, 2008. Mr. Yu was sentenced to nine years in prison by the Liaoyuan Court in October 2008, then taken to the Siping Prison.

Mr. Yu was 65 years old at that time. However, guards still forced him to perform hard labour. Before the Christmas season of 2009, the guards forced the prisoners to manufacture strings of beads using toxic glue. Dozens of inmates were forced to work in a small prison cell. Ventilation was poor and penetrating odours spread throughout the cell. Several inmates developed symptoms of toxicity. Mr. Wang Enguo's face swelled; his eyes reddened, he became dizzy and then vomited. He eyes were tearing, he had a runny nose and his skin developed a red rash. Most of the practitioners at the prison were involved in the toxic glue work and were severely harmed, developing symptoms of pleurisy and tuberculosis. Mr. Pang Shikun developed severe tuberculosis, and died three days after he was hospitalised. Mr. Yu Donghui was also persecuted in such an environment.

On December 29, 2010, the Siping Prison set up the “Eleventh Division” specifically for conducting closed brainwashing sessions for Falun Gong practitioners. Chen Guomin, head of the Prison Education Section, acted as the division director, and Zhou Jijia was the deputy director. Mr. Yu and fourteen other practitioners were transferred to the Eleventh Division. Each practitioner was monitored and persecuted by three criminal inmates.

As a result of this persecution, Mr. Yu was hospitalised in February 2011 after developing a blood clot in his brain. He collapsed and went into a coma after being released from the hospital. The prison still refused to release him as of May 2011. After his family submitted strong requests, different hospitals performed four examinations on him. The prison subsequently released Mr. Yu on bail for medical treatment on November 8, 2011.

Mr. Yu was given a physical examination after returning home. The examination revealed severe blood clots on both sides of his brain. His blood pressure was dangerously elevated, and his teeth were loose. Three of his front teeth fell out, preventing him from chewing food.

Critically injured both physically and mentally from the severe persecution, Yu Donghui died at 8:40 p.m. on December 17, 2011.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/12/31/251279.html