(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Yang Yongjiu, in his sixties, was a farmer in Shiling Town in the Yanjiang District of Ziyang City, Sichuan Province. He began practicing Falun Dafa in 1995. After the persecution began on July 20, 1999, he was arrested and detained several times because of his peaceful appeals on behalf of Falun Gong. He was subjected to severe persecution and died at the end of 2002.

In January of 2000, Yang Yongjiu and his wife went to Beijing for a peaceful appeal and were illegally arrested and detained for 15 days. On May 13, 2000, Yang Yongjiu participated in group exercises with other practitioners on Dongqiu Hill and was detained for one month.

On December 24, 2000, Yang Yongjiu and his wife once again went to Beijing to appeal. He was arrested and incarcerated for eleven months in the Yanjiang District Detention Center. He was released in November 2001. In 2002, someone reported Yang Yongjiu's wife Liu Shufen for distributing truth-clarification materials. She was also detained in the Yanjiang District Detention Center. The prison warden Shao and the inmates of her cell abused her, and she suffered a mental breakdown. She could not even recognize her family members, and her physical health was extremely poor. Yang Yongjiu was deeply grieved and indignant because he and his wife had been persecuted so terribly just for being good people.

November 20, 2004