(Minghui.org)
Name: Xu HaihongChinese Name: 徐海红Gender: FemaleAge: 56City: QingdaoProvince: ShandongOccupation: unknownDate of Death: December 9, 2023Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 10, 2023Most Recent Place of Detention: Shandong Province Women’s Prison
A 56-year-old woman in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, died on December 9, 2023, about three days after she was transferred to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison (located in the capital city of Jinan) to serve a one-year-and-four-month prison term.
Ms. Xu Haihong’s sentencing stemmed from her arrest in 2022 after being reported for talking to people about the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of her faith, Falun Gong, a mind-body practice based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
The arresting officers from the Liaoyuan Road Police Station ordered her to sign interrogation records, but she refused to comply. She went on a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary arrest. The police released her on bail on the 15th day of her hunger strike when she was in critical condition. Her family was forced to pay a fine of 13,000 yuan and warned that her case was not over.
The Liaoyuan Road Police Station officers pounded on Ms. Xu’s door around September 10, 2023. When she refused to let them in, they smashed the door and the lock. They took her to the Pudong Detention Center in Qingdao City and barred her family from visiting her.
Neither the police nor the detention center updated Ms. Xu’s family on her situation. They found out in October 2023 that she had been sentenced to one year and four months. They were never notified of her indictment, trial, or sentencing.
Around December 6, 2023, the Qingdao City Judicial Bureau arranged for Ms. Xu to be transferred to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison. Because she had become extremely weak due to her long-term hunger strike, she was admitted to the in-house hospital when she arrived at the prison. She died in the prison hospital on December 9, 2023.
Ms. Xu’s family viewed the surveillance videos taken in the prison hospital and did not see any footage of the guards torturing her. While the prison is known for abusing jailed Falun Gong practitioners, Ms. Xu’s family members believe that the Qingdao authorities “passed the buck” to the Jinan authorities, possibly to shift responsibility for her death and also make it harder for the family to get to Jinan (about 200 miles away) to seek justice for her.