Lv Zhifan - 吕志范
(Minghui.org) A Wuchang City resident died less than 4 months after he was arrested for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
Mr. Lu Zhifan, 50, was seized together with 9 other local Falun Gong practitioners on May 6 of this year. Mr. Lu was kept captive at Chaihe Forest Bureau Detention Center and soon saw his arrest formally approved.
Mr. Lu’s lawyer tried to meet with him on July 11, but was turned away by the detention center. The local police department and the detention center claimed that Mr. Lu refused to give up his belief, and any visits must be approved by the provincial public security ministry.
Mr. Lu’s mother fell ill upon learning of her son’s latest arrest. She was dealt another blow when the detention center told her days ago that “some death row inmates beat her son to death on September 3.”
The exact cause of Mr. Lu’s death remains to be investigated.
Untimely Death Preceded by Repeated Arrests
Mr. Lu had been repeatedly arrested for his faith since the persecution began in 1999. While serving 3 years of forced labor, he was once forced to sit on the floor with his head pushed down between his legs. Several guards then stepped on his back, fracturing his pelvic bones and tendons. He passed out due to the excruciating pain and could not stand for a month.
Unable to cope with the stress, his wife divorced him after he was released from the labor camp.
Mr. Lu filed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin in 2015, accusing the former Chinese dictator of initiating the persecution of Falun Gong that resulted in his repeated detention and broken family.
