FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 11/2/2001 [ http://www.faluninfo.net/ ]

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NEW YORK, November 2, 2001 (Falun Dafa Information Center) - After eight months of being held and tortured in a Chinese labor camp for refusing to give up the practice of Falun Gong, a practitioner is sent home and died from his injuries days later. Officials from the practitioner's hometown confirm he was a "common person and did not do any bad deeds," and yet he "was very skinny when he came back [from the labor camp] and had no appetite to eat anything."

In January, 2001, Mr. Mengjun Ren, 56 years old, from Dongfeng village, Shahe city, Hebei province had traveled to Beijing to appeal to the central government to lift the ban on Falun Gong. Upon returning to his home, he was detained by officers from Xincheng police station, according to sources familiar with Mr. Ren's case. Shortly afterwards, he was sent to the Shahe Detention Center and then onto the Handan City Labor Camp.

In the labor camp, Mr. Ren was tortured in an attempt to force him to renounce Falun Gong and agree to stop practicing. Mr. Ren refused, and therefore, suffered continued torture over the next eight months.

Finally in October, officials at the labor camp became concerned that Mr. Ren would die. In an apparent attempt to avoid responsibility for his death, the labor camp officials contacted his family and asked that he be taken home immediately. According to sources inside China, after Mr. Ren returned home, he was deaf in both ears, had bruises on his buttocks and legs, and had haematuria and blood in his stool. It appears as if his internal organs were severely injured, these sources also say. He was not able to drink water or take liquid food.

Mr. Ren said that his deaf condition was caused by the brutal beatings of Captain Wang, an official at the labor camp. Sources say Wang encouraged criminals to beat Mr. Ren severely as well as torture him.

Mr. Ren died at 4:00pm on October 29. Before Mr. Ren passed away, he had said, "I believe in Falun Dafa."

Officials from Mr. Ren's hometown confirmed to FDI reporters that Mr. Ren had died "a few days ago." When asked about an investigation into alleged mistreatment and torture utilized against Mr. Ren or whether the family would press charges, the official commented "Nobody has said a thing. Who would dare to sue? It would be big trouble if the upper leaders found out about it (the lawsuit)."

Mr. Ren's death brings the confirmed death toll to 305, although government sources acknowledge that more than 1,000 have actually died. More than 40% of the deaths have been reported in the last six months, a sign of the increased intensity of official efforts to eradicate Falun Gong since the ban was announced in July 1999.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER- Contacts: Gail Rachlin 917-501-4441, Adam Montanaro 917-405-4507, Erping Zhang 646-533-6147, or Feng Yuan 646-523-5676. Email: faluninfoctr@nycmail.com, Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/

Category: Deaths