NEW YORK, December 7, 2001 (Falun Dafa Information Center) - Police announced the death of a Falun Gong woman moments after her family handed over a large fee and paperwork to have her labor camp sentence reduced. Inside sources reveal that the woman was actually still alive at the time, and being held in another room by police. Soon after and while still in police custody, she was reported dead.

After being arrested in December 2000 for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, Ms. Hou Xiuping, approximately 35, from Xiagou, Nanguan Area, Changchun City, Jilin Province was sentenced to three years in a labor camp for practicing Falun Gong. Previously, Ms. Hou had been illegally detained twice: for appealing in Beijing, and for distributing news about Falun Gong from her shop.

Police: Report Death a Suicide, Fine the Family

A relative went to the Public Security to pay a large fine in order to have the labor camp sentence reduced to one year. While the relative was filling out the paperwork in one room, Ms. Hou was being watched by police in another room, sources say. After the paperwork was finished, police told the relative that Ms. Hou had committed suicide by "jumping out the window." The relative refused to believe or accept the news, and believing Hou was murdered, intended to file an appeal for investigation of the death. She was given 20,000 Yuan (approximately US$2,500) to keep it quiet.

Police in China, under the broad jurisdiction of the "6-10 Office", have been given carte blanche to list any death of a Falun Gong practitioner while in custody as "suicide," and numerous cases of "jumping" to death from high places have been reported. Some of these reports by police are in direct contradiction to eyewitness reports.

In its more recent comprehensive report on torture in China, "Torture - A Growing Scourge in China," Amnesty International documents this disturbing pattern: "Reports continue of deaths of detained [Falun Gong] practitioners following torture and extreme ill-treatment," the report states, continuing, "in all cases where the victims were Falun Gong practitioners, the government has denied any wrongdoing, even in the face of multiple eye witness testimonials."

Retired Elementary School Teacher Betrayed by Fellow Teachers, Tortured to Death

A second woman was tortured to death while in custody for refusing to renounce the Falun Gong practice. Ms. Zeng Fanshu, 56, a retired teacher in Xiangtang Elementary School, Jiangjin, Chongqing City, was sent to a brainwashing class on January 11, 2001 after local authorities ransacked her house without warrant or just cause. She refused to renounce Falun Gong and declined to reveal information about other Falun Gong practitioners. As a result, she died on February 1, 2001 from injuries sustained while in custody.

Sources close to the events named three responsible parties in Jiangjin City, in addition to the victims fellow teachers at the Xiangtang Elementary School: Wan Menglun, Director of Archives Bureau; He Zhi, in the Family Planning Office; and Huang He, of the Jiangjin Hospice Center.

"These tactics hearken back to World War II Germany: the police have free reign to torture and kill for their bloody objectives, and no rule of law can stop them," stated Mr. Adam Montanaro, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Center. "The world needs to take notice of what China has been doing over the last two and an half years - these are not the deeds of a civilized leadership."

These two deaths make a total of 323 verified deaths from mistreatment in Jiang Zemin regime's intensified campaign against Falun Gong since July 1999. Government officials inside China, however, reveal that the actual number of wrongful deaths from police abuse of Falun Gong practitioners exceeds 1,600.