Architect Mr. Yue Shengzhu from Sha County, Fujian Province, Dies Due to Persecution

Name: Yue Shengzhu
Gender: Male
Age: 38
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Architect
Date of Death: May 3rd, 2012
Date of Most Recent Arrest: January 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Shuitou Forced Labour Camp
City: Sanming
Province: Fujian
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, beatings, force-feedings

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Yue Shengzhu, 38, an architect from the Sha County Architecture Design Institution in Sanming City, Fujian Province, died on May 3rd, 2012, after facing long-term abuse in a forced labour camp. His wife, Ms. Yue Mudi, was sentenced to five years in prison and is still detained.

Mr. Yue began practising Falun Gong in 1998. Even after the large-scale persecution began in 1999, he held firm to his belief. In 2000, he went to Beijing to speak out for justice for Falun Gong, but his doing so resulted in agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) frequently harassing him at home. In 2001, Mr. Yue and a few other practitioners distributed tens of thousands of Falun Gong informational pamphlets in Sanming City; he was then arrested and sentenced to five years of forced labour.

On May 4th, 2003, when Mr. Yue was detained at the Integrated Team of the Second Division in Minxi Prison, he was beaten by a deputy instructor and another official, and he went on a hunger strike for about a week in protest. However, every day during his hunger strike, he was sent to a hospital to be force-fed. Later, Mr. Yue and other imprisoned practitioners went on hunger strikes and refused to perform hard labour; they demanded to be released. The guards then beat and injured Mr. Yue, and took him to a hospital, where he was held for more than two months. At the hospital, he continued his hunger strike, but he was still force-fed every day.

Mr. Yue remained on a hunger strike in prison to resist the persecution. When he was released in 2005, he was extremely emaciated.

On New Year's Day of 2008, Mr. Yue and his wife, Ms. Yue, were reported and arrested for explaining the facts about Falun Gong. Mr. Yue was sentenced to three years in a forced labour camp, and Ms. Yue was sentenced to five years in prison. She is still imprisoned in Fujian Province Women's Prison.

In the labour camp, Mr. Yue held firm to his belief and often loudly stated, “Falun Gong is good,” which caused the guards to abuse him even more. The guards also prevented his family from visiting him. Even after he was diagnosed with a serious disease in the beginning of 2009, the prison refused to release him. On July 23rd, 2009, and only after Mr. Yue was too weak to move on his own, the labour camp informed Mr. Yue's family that they could finally take him home.

After being released, Mr. Yue attempted to resume practising Falun Gong. However, the years of physical and mental abuse were too much for him to recover from, and he passed away around 8:00 p.m. on May 3rd, 2012.