Mr. Pan Benyu, Heilongjiang

Name: Pan Benyu (???)
Gender: Male
Occupation: Retired from the Environmental Sanitation Station, Qiqihar Railroad Bureau
Date of Most Recent Arrest: December 8, 2006
Date of Most Recent Release: July 21, 2010
Date of Death: July 17, 2011
Province: Heilongjiang
City: Qiqihar
Most Recent Place of Detention: Tailai Prison (????)

Case Details:

Mr. Pan Benyu was first arrested soon after the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999. He spent most of the next twelve years either in prison, re-education through labor camps or on the run to avoid persecution. Overcome by torture-induced medical problems, he died on July 17, 2011.

Mr. Pan’s longest detention was four years, starting on July 5, 2001. During this time he was held for 70 days in solitary confinement except for when other inmates were made to beat him. For the last 15 days of his confinement Mr. Pan’s arms were chained behind his back and to the floor. When he was released he had lost control of his arms, vomited and urinated blood and had dangerously low blood pressure. The flesh on his wrists rotted and he passed in and out of consciousness. In this condition police released him on June 18, 2005.

One year later, police went to detain him but he evaded them by going into hiding until December 8, 2006, when he was found at his parents’ home. Within days of Mr. Pan’s detention, beatings had caused failure in his heart, liver and kidneys.  Police sent him to the Qiqihar Second Hospital. Despite his terrible condition, the Tiefeng District Court sentenced him after a sham trial to seven years in prison. He was transferred to the Tailai Prison on April 18, 2007.

Beatings worsened Mr. Pan’s health and with symptoms of heart disease (myocardial infarction,) liver failure and edema, the prison released him on medical bail on May 22, 2009.

On February 21, 2010, police claimed he needed a medical exam and informed his family the cost would be 4,000 yuan. Since his family was unable to pay this amount, police took Mr. Pan back to prison.  They released him on July 31, 2010 for a second medical parole. His entire body was swollen and itched with scabies.

In February 2011 police officers broke into Mr. Pan’s house and found Falun Gong books. To avoid being taken into custody again, Mr. Pan went into hiding until April 28, 2011 when his health had once again deteriorated to the point that he could not care for himself. On June 28, he could no longer walk or have a bowel movement. His family took him to the hospital. Police continued to harass him at the hospital until he died on July 17, 2011.

Before he was arrested for the first time in 1999, Mr. Pan Benyu was known to have saved six people’s lives on different occasions, including two children who had fallen in the path of an oncoming train.