55-year-old Woman Dies from Abuse in Liaoning Prison

New York–The Falun Dafa Information Center recently received news that Ms. Wang Chunxiang, a 55-year-old resident of Liaoning province, died in prison on September 25, 2011 under suspicious circumstances.

Ms. Wang Chunxiang was abducted in October 2006 after a plainclothes police officer followed her home and then found Falun Gong related materials and a printer in her home, after he entered and searched it without a warrant. Soon after, she was sentenced in a sham trial to eight years in a prison camp and was sent to Liaoning Province Women’s Prison.

Over the next five years, her health deteriorated badly due to torture and being denied medical attention. On September 25, 2011, prison authorities alerted her family members that she had died.

When Ms. Wang’s family arrived at the prison, they saw her body was emaciated, though no bruise marks were visible. The prison authorities claimed she had died of a heart attack, but refused to produce copies of the hospital records that would confirm their account. They pressured the family to quickly approve her cremation, which they eventually did.

For the full details of the case and a photo of Ms. Wang prior to her detention, see here.

This brings to 54 the number of Falun Gong deaths known to have occurred since January 2011. In total, overseas Falun Gong researchers have documented 3,450 cases of deaths due to abuse in custody since the Chinese Communist Party launched its campaign in 1999 to persecute Chinese citizens who practice Falun Gong.

Liaoning province is historically known to be particularly deadly for Falun Gong practitioners. The Falun Dafa Information Center urges the international community to hold the leaders of Liaoning Province Women’s Prison accountable for Ms. Wang’s death.