Mr. Zhu Wenhua, 53, Tianjin

Name: Zhu Wenhua (???)
Gender: Male
Age:  53
Occupation: Former employee of Tianjin’s International Heat and Ventilation Equipment Company
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2003
Date of Most Recent Release: Died in custody
Date of Death: July 19, 2010
Province: Tianjin
City: Tianjin
Most Recent Place of Detention: Tianjin Municipal Prison (????)

Case Details:

Zhu was abducted by police in 2003. In March 2004, Zhu was “sentenced” to eight years in a prison camp following a sham trial at Nankai District Court and taken to Tianjin Municipal Prison. His family was notified that on July 19, 2010 Zhu died in custody.

According to sources inside China, while in custody at the camp, Zhu was severely tortured because he refused to renounce his faith in Falun Gong. During one torture session, guards beat him so badly that one of his legs was broken, leaving him disabled.

Throughout Zhu’s time at the camp, his family was denied the opportunity to visit him. On one occasion, his nearly 90-year-old mother appeared at the camp in person requesting to see her son, but prison personnel refused to allow her access to him.

In late July, the prison administration notified Zhu’s family that he had died on July 19, 2010, allegedly of a heart attack — a common cause cited by prison camp authorities when prisoners actually die from torture-related injuries. His family doubts the official version of events, and believes that he was tortured to death.

Stricken by grief at the news of Zhu’s sudden death, his elderly mother passed away within two weeks of her son.

For more information, see Falun Dafa Information Center, “Middle-aged Falun Gong Practitioner Dies in Tianjin Prison,” August 17, 2010.