Zhang Bingwu - 张秉武
(Minghui.org) A Falun Gong practitioner, Mr. Zhang Bingwu of Jingyuan county, Gansu province, died eight months after he was arrested. Mr. Zhang had been held for six months at the Jingyuan detention center.
Mr. Zhang was arrested on May 17, 2016 and passed away on January 26, 2017 with a brain tumor. He was arrested for putting up posters carrying information about Falun Gong on May 13, 2016.
Arrest
In the middle of the night on May 17, 2016, officers from the police department climbed over the courtyard wall and went into Mr. Zhang's house. The officers threatened his family and ransacked his house before taking him to the detention center.
This is not the first time that Mr. Zhang has been arrested. He has been detained and persecuted many times since the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999.
At the time of the arrest, Mr. Zhang's wife and youngest daughter, who was five months pregnant, together with the daughter's five-year-old child, were at home. The child was terrified by the scene unfolding in front of him.
Shocked by the arrest, Mr. Zhang's wife cannot sleep well and is always on edge. She has developed high blood pressure and aged a lot after his arrest, although she is only 50.
Release on Medical Parole and Death
On November 22, 2016, the head of the detention center and two police officers went to Mr. Zhang's house and informed his family that he had a brain tumor. He was granted medical parole after the family completed and submitted the necessary paperwork.
Three days later, on November 25, the head of detention center and a police officer sent Mr. Zhang home.
Upon returning home, Mr. Zhang's family noticed that his expression was dull and he was unresponsive. He was also incontinent. He gave irrelevant answers when asked questions. If someone put a fist up in front of him, he became very scared and quickly avoided it. He could not answer when asked if he was beaten during detention.
The family heard that a policeman told others that Mr. Zhang would die within a month, as he was seriously ill.
The family brought Mr. Zhang to the hospital on November 31. The doctor asked the family if Mr. Zhang was a drug addict, as needle marks could be seen all over his body.
When Mr. Zhang was detained, the police department forged evidence of his “crime” and sent it to the procuratorate. A hearing was originally set for December 28, 2016, and later postponed to January 4, 2017.
Before the trial in January, the judge visited Mr. Zhang's house to check if he was really unfit to attend. He commented that Mr. Zhang looked fine before leaving.
As Mr. Zhang was not in a right state of mind, he did not attend the trial on January 4.
On January 17, 2017, the family rushed him to the hospital when they noticed that he was in pain and twitching. He was transferred to another hospital, as he was in critical condition.
Different symptoms started to appear: redness, pustules, rash and small blisters. In the next two days, a series of tests showed that he had a malignant tumor in his brain, and his brain showed a high level of fluid accumulation, which may have been caused by trauma. He slipped into a coma the next day after being admitted to the hospital.
The family took him home on January 22, 2017, as they decided not to proceed with the surgery on that day.
When he was awake while at home, the family tried asking him questions, but he could not describe what had happened while he was detained. Mr. Zhang passed away on January 26, 2017.
After his death, the judge still harassed the family on February 6, 2017 via phone calls.
