Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison, Elderly Practitioner Mr. Luo Laiyang from Nanchang City Dies As a Result of the Persecution

Name: Luo Laiyang
Gender: Male
Age: 73
Address: Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province
Occupation: Retired employee of the Nanchang City No. 81 Linen Textile Factory
Date of Death: April 6th, 2012
Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 17th, 2007
Most Recent Place of Detention: Jiangxi Province Prison
City: Nanchang
Province: Jiangxi
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, imprisonment, torture, detention, home ransacked

Mr. Luo Laiyang, a retired employee of the No. 81 Linen Textile Factory in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, was arrested and sentenced to 9 years in prison in 2007 for distributing information about Falun Gong. He passed away as a result of persecution, at age 73 on April 6th, 2012 at the Jiangxi Prison Hospital. During his imprisonment, Mr. Luo held a hunger strike to resist the persecution, and developed symptoms of illness. However, the prison authorities refused to release him on medical parole, citing the fact that Mr. Luo refused to write a “repentance statement” renouncing Falun Gong.

Mr. Luo obtained both physical and mental health after he started practising Falun Gong. But after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began the persecution of the practice, Mr. Luo was persecuted physically and mentally by officers from the textile factory's police station for seven years. Officer Wang Yan from the factory police station was assigned to closely watch him, often calling to harass him and extorting money from him by various means. The security agents harassed and watched him closely at his house for six months. His house was ransacked three times and he was arrested six times. He was held in a detention centre four times. Altogether, Mr. Luo spent three months and 20 days in the detention centre, where he was pressured to write the so-called three statements renouncing Falun Gong.

Mr. Luo was sent to the Police School in Nanchang City to attend “transformation” (brainwashing) sessions over the period of a month. Later he was sentenced to three years of forced labour and subjected to brutal torture. He went on a hunger strike for three months to protest the persecution, and developed high blood pressure. He was sent to Changzheng Hospital, which is under the jurisdiction of the Jiangxi Province Labor Camp Hospital, where he was hospitalized for more than four months. Finally, he was released on medical bail.

In May 2006, Zhang Yuanchao, the Political and Judiciary Committee head from the linen factory, Du Yun, head of the police station, and political head Wang Yan tried to arrest Mr. Luo Laiyang again, and withheld his pension. Mr. Luo left home to avoid further harassment and arrest.

In March 2007, Jingshan Police Station head Hu Zhirong threatened Mr. Luo's family to get them to tell them where Mr. Luo was staying so they could persecute further. Attempting to arrest him, in mid-August the same year, Du Yun, Wang Yan and Qian Yimin from the linen factory police station harassed Mr. Luo's sister at home twice. They also went to his son's office, demanding to know Mr. Luo's whereabouts.

Around 7:00 p.m. on October 17th, 2007, Mr. Luo was distributing information about Falun Gong in the family compound of Nanchang Hangkong University, when he was reported to police by security guard Qian Weize. Within a few minutes, Mr. Luo was arrested, then taken to the Nanchang City No. 2 Detention Centre on October 19th. Participating in this round of persecution were Li Xiaoping, Nanchang City Domestic Security Division officer, Zhang Yifei and Luo Hong from the Qingyunpu Domestic Security Division and Zhu Shengyuan, Jingshan Police Station head. They confiscated Mr. Luo's 615 yuan¹ cash, his bicycle and watch.

Several months later, Mr. Luo, who was nearly 70 years old at the time, was sentenced to 9 years in prison, where he suffered physical abuse including torture.

Note

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