31-year-old Woman Beaten to Death for Falun Gong Practice

NEW YORK (FDI) – On April 1st, 2004, Chinese police ransacked the home of Ms. Huang Zhao and her husband, stealing valuables and detaining the couple who both practice Falun Gong.

Two weeks later, Huang was dead.

Witnesses say by the second day of her detention, Huang had been severely beaten and could no longer walk. Because she refused to renounce her beliefs, on April 4th Huang was transferred to the No.1 Branch of Wuhan City Police (the local “6-10 Office”) where she was tortured further.

Huang died at 3 a.m. on April 16th at the Wuhan City No. 3 Hospital.

Sources familiar with Huang’s case say local police are monitoring Huang’s family members and the hospital where she died to ensure information about her death is not made public. Everyone walking in and out of Huang’s residential building is questioned, they say.

Huang’s husband, Liu Ning, was also beaten and tortured after being detained, but he was later released to his family. When Liu visited his mother-in-law to enquire about his wife’s whereabouts, he was arrested again.