Family members seek an independent autopsy on Falun Gong practitioner’s corpse
03 Aug 2012
A healthy, middle-aged woman from southern China who practiced Falun Gong died under mysterious circumstances within hours of being abducted off the street by police. With public support from neighbors and friends, family members are attempting to hire an independent pathologist to determine the cause of her death.
Ms. Xu Chensheng, a Falun Gong practitioner from Hunan Province
At 10am on May 16, 2012, police officers in the city of Chenzhou, Hunan province, abducted Ms. Xu Chensheng (许郴生), off the street, presumably because they discovered she was a Falun Gong practitioner. They took her to Renmin West Street Police Station, where they handcuffed and interrogated her for approximately twelve hours. Later that night, she was driven to the hospital.
At 11:15pm, the Chenzhou City No. 1 People’s Hospital pronounced her dead. The police department informed her family members of the 47-year-old’s death two days later. A photo of her corpse (below) and the details of her case were soon sent to the overseas Chinese Minghui.org website and posted online.
“Ms. Xu’s sudden death and the account of her life in recent years are reminders that for many Falun Gong practitioners, the daily reality is shockingly grim,” says Levi Browde, director of the Falun Dafa Information Center. “But its exactly in such cases that we’re also seeing more and more Chinese people speaking out against this horrific injustice.”
Although local media have been barred from reporting on the case, posters have appeared in Chenzhou stating, “The murderers should be punished!” Emboldened by the community support, her family members, including her 87-year-old mother, hired a lawyer and an independent examiner to perform an autopsy on Ms. Xu, whose corpse is still being held in an official morgue. All their requests have been denied and her brother has been harassed at his workplace, the Lanshan County Education Bureau.
A photo of Ms. Xu’s corpse sent secretly out of China. Ms. Xu died within hours of being abducted by police in May 2012.
One month before her abduction, Ms. Xu told a friend that she feared she was being monitored and followed. Like many Falun Gong practitioners, she had been abducted numerous times previously and had spent several months in jails and Re-education Through Labor (RTL) camps.
In 2005, her employer, the Chenzhou Cigarette Factory, colluded with the local 610 Office, an extralegal Communist Party task force leading the campaign against Falun Gong, to force Ms. Xu to attend brainwashing classes. To avoid the persecution, she went into hiding. She was subsequently fired, lost her ID card, and essentially lived on the run. Her home was ransacked several times and her husband divorced her under pressure.
In 2011, she attempted to board a train but, because she had no ID card, was searched. Railway personnel found a Falun Gong book and several informational flyers in her possession. She was detained and abused for nearly two months. Upon her release, she was weak and emaciated. The Railway Bureau praised the attendant responsible for her detention, awarding him 100,000 yuan (US$15,700).
The Falun Dafa Infomation Center calls on the international community to contact officials in Chenzhou and demand that the request of Ms Xu’s family for an independent autopsy be granted and that those responsible for her death be approrpiately punished.
Additional Details:
Chenzhou City Police Department: +86-735-2220806
Chenzhou City Political and Legal Committee: +86-735-2870566
Chenzhou City 610 Office: +86-139-73531339
Renmin West Street Police Station: +86-13873568696
Ms. Xu’s former employer, Chenzhou Cigarette Factory:+86-7352568947; +86-735-2229999, 5 Dongfenglu, Chenzhou 423000
Chenzhou City Political and Legal Committee: +86-735-2870566
Chenzhou City 610 Office: +86-139-73531339
Renmin West Street Police Station: +86-13873568696
Ms. Xu’s former employer, Chenzhou Cigarette Factory:+86-7352568947; +86-735-2229999, 5 Dongfenglu, Chenzhou 423000
Essential Background
In July of 1999, China’s autocratic Communist Party launched an unlawful campaign of arrests, violence, and propaganda against Chinese citizens practicing Falun Gong (or “Falun Dafa”) with the intent of “eradicating” the apolitical practice. Former Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin launched the persecution fearing the practice’s growing popularity among the Chinese people (70 to 100 million) was overshadowing his own legacy (article). Since then, the Falun Dafa Information Center, based in New York, has reported over 3,500 deaths from abuse and over 80,000 cases of torture. The United Nations, Amnesty International, Chinese human rights lawyers, and foreign media have also documented Falun Gong torture and deaths at the hands of Chinese officials (samples). Hundreds of thousands of Chinese who practice Falun Gong remain in captivity, rendering them the single largest group of prisoners of conscience in China (article). Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline that is Buddhist in nature, but not part of the religion of Buddhism. It consists of slow-moving “qigong” exercises, meditation, and teachings for daily life centered on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance (about Falun Gong).
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