AFP: Falungong member dies in Chinese police custody: rights group

August 2, 2001

BEIJING, Aug 2 (AFP) - A 33-year-old man arrested in China for refusing to abandon his beliefs in the banned Falungong spiritual group has died after being tortured, a rights group said Thursday.

Li Changjun, a masters degree graduate, was detained on May 16 after police caught him downloading and printing Falungong material from the Internet, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Li was working at the land tax bureau of Wuhan city in central China's Hubei province at the time of his arrest. He had been detained many times in the past for defying the government's ban on the group.

On June 27, 40 days after his latest detention, Wuhan police notified his family of his death.

Li's mother, Wei Sumin, was allowed to see her son's body and said it was covered with red bruises and scars. She said his neck and ears had been beaten purple and he had lost a lot of weight, the center said.

He had been healthy before he was detained, the center said.

Wei told the center she believed Li was beaten to death. She could not be reached for comment Thursday as her phone line had been disconnected.

Another Falungong member who was detained in the same jail with Li said five days before Li's death was announced that Li was beaten until he became unconscious, the center said.

Contacted by phone for comment, a police official in Wuhan hung up when he realized the call came from a news agency.

Li is the 156th Falungong member to have been confirmed by the center to have died in police custody since China banned the group as an [Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted].

Falungong's New York headquarters claims the number of deaths is more than 259. Many of the reported deaths cannot be immediately confirmed.

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There have been no reports of the punishment of police officials who use excessive force against Falungong members.

In an effort to hold police officials accountable and discourage them from further abuse, the Falungong group last month filed a civil suit in New York against the visiting public security chief of China's Hubei province alleging torture, murder and crimes against humanity.

Zhao Zhifei, second-in-command of Hubei's "610" office, set up by the central government to crack down on Falungong and other spiritual groups, is being targeted under the Torture Victim Protection Act and the Alien Tort Claims Act.

The legislation allows American jurisdiction over acts of torture committed outside the country. A lawsuit can only proceed, however, if defendants are served with legal papers while in the United States.

The case, filed in the US District Court for the southern district of New York, was accepted by the court, the center said Thursday.

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