Mr. Gu Qun (??)

[Refer to point D on China map]

Status: Tortured to death

Gender: Male

Age: 50

City: Dalian, Liaoning province

Former Workplace: Xigang District Industrial and Commercial Bureau of Dalian City

Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 16, 2008

Date of Death: April 8, 2008

Last Place Detained: Yaojia Detention Center, Dalian

Known Acquaintances Overseas:  None

Details:

Mr. Gu began practicing Falun Gong in the early 1990s, and volunteered his time to teach others the practice until the practice was banned in 1999. In early 2000, Mr. Gu traveled to Beijing to peacefully demonstrate in Tiananmen Square. He was arrested and held at a Dalian drug rehabilitation center.

Over the next eight years, Mr. Gu was arrested and detained on five separate occasions, often facing severe ill-treatment and torture for refusing to recant his belief in Falun Gong.

On the afternoon of March 16, 2008, Mr. Gu was caught distributing literature about the persecution of Falun Gong in public. For this, he was arrested and taken to Yaojia Detention Center in Dalian. He was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor. Before he could be transferred to the forced labor camp, however, detention center staff tortured and violently force-fed Mr. Gu. His health rapidly deteriorated, and he died on April 8, just over three weeks after his arrest.