Sent to Prison Camp for Ten Years, Falun Gong Practitioner Dies from Torture

NEW YORK—A father of one in his mid-50’s died in early August 2010, while serving a ten year “sentence” in a prison camp in northeast China, the Falun Dafa Information Center recently learned.

According to sources inside China, Lu Manku (???) died from torture-related injuries while in custody at the Nanguanling Prison in Dalian City, Liaoning Province. Lu had been taken into custody in early 2008 while he was making leaflets exposing the human rights abuses suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in China. On May 26, 2008, Lu was “sentenced” in a sham trial to ten years in prison.

Lu’s case was one of 863 that the Information Center publicized in December 2009 (news)—Lu was case no. 45 and one of 63 Falun Gong practitioners “sentenced” in late 2008, early 2009 to at least ten years in prison (list). His death highlights the danger facing the hundreds of thousands of other imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners in China.

On February 10, 2006, police from the Tanggangzi police station and 6-10 office in Liaoning’s Anshan city ransacked Lu’s house while he was not at home. The police, who did not have a warrant, confiscated books and other Falun Gong materials, and threatened Lu’s child and parents.

To avoid being abducted, Lu was forced into homelessness and spent the next two years away from home. A large, but unknown number of Falun Gong practitioners throughout China—perhaps tens of thousands—are forced to leave their homes to avoid being abducted and tortured by local security agencies. Many leave to also protect their families from police harassment. Without a place to live or employment, many are left destitute, effectively becoming refugees in their own country.

“A man has to flee his home to prevent himself and his family from being illegally abducted by police, and when they finally catch up with him, they send him to a prison camp for a decade where he’s tortured to death,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Erping Zhang. “This is the state of the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign against Falun Gong…it flies in the face of all human dignity and is tearing families apart across the country.”