Additional Information Concerning the Death of Dafa Practitioner Zhan Wei in Yingcheng City, Hubei Province

January 29, 2002

(Clearwisdom.net) Zhan Wei, male, born in 1970, was an employee at the Postal and Cable Services in Yingcheng City. He had been illegally held in No. 1 Detention Centre of Yingcheng City for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong during last year's National Day (1^st October). Resisting and protesting the persecution, Zhan started a hunger strike in January this year. Eight days into the hunger strike, suffering from severe dehydration, he passed away on January 23, 2002.

Born in Chengguan of Yingcheng City, Hubei Province, Zhan Wei worked in Yingcheng City's Post office. Zhan Wei started to practice Falun Gong in 1996. In October 1999, he was detained for posting and distributing information that exposed the brutal persecution of Falun Gong by the Jiang regime. Then he was sent for one year of forced labour at a labour camp. In October 2001, he went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa, unfurling a banner and exclaiming "Falun Dafa is Good!" in Tiananmen Square. He was arrested, sent back to Yingcheng, and detained at the city's No. 1 Detention Centre.

Zhan Wei refused to cooperate with the evil force's persecution. He continued to practice the Falun Gong exercises at the detention center and would openly call out "Falun Dafa is Good!" He demanded his unconditional release, and protested the persecution with a hunger strike. For this he was often beaten by the guards and brutally force-fed. After prolonged torture, his life was in danger. To shirk responsibility, the detention center and the police handed Zhan Wei back to his family. Resuscitation efforts at the People's Hospital, Yingcheng City proved futile, and he died 3 days later on January 23, 2002.

In an effort to conceal evidence, Yingcheng City's Bureau of Public Security forcibly took Zhan's body to the city's crematorium, and ordered the police to guard it. Some practitioners wishing to keep vigil over Zhan Wei's body were driven away by the police without explanation. At night, practitioners were threatened with arrests if they should go to the crematorium. The police even started to arrest practitioners who had been to the crematorium to bid farewell, and began to investigate who leaked the information. Many practitioners have been forced to leave home at the present moment.

Yingcheng No. 1 Detention Centre is still illegally detaining many Falun Gong practitioners. Some of them have been on hunger strike for over 2 weeks, and their situation is very critical.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2002/1/29/24004.html

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