(Minghui.org) A Luzhou resident died three weeks after being sent home by a Sichuan prison, which earlier on had refused to release her on medical parole despite her fast-moving colon cancer.
Ms. Chen Shikang was tortured and physically abused on a regular basis while serving a five-year term at Longquan Prison for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime. Her health quickly declined and she was diagnosed with colon cancer in early 2015.
The prison doctors proposed “release on medical parole” after performing surgery on her, but the prison authorities refused to let her go, claiming “no medical parole for political prisoners like her.”
Ms. Chen's cancer spread to her liver, and she had edema all over her body. Only then did the prison decide to release her to her family. The guards who drove her home in early February threatened her family to not tell anyone that she developed cancer in prison. They also made it clear that the family was responsible for all her medical expenses.
Ms. Chen died on February 23, two weeks after the 2016 Chinese New Year. She was 59.
Arrest and Sentencing
Ms. Chen was returning home on June 26, 2013 when she was stopped outside her apartment building by a group of officers. The police next ransacked her home and confiscated 10,000 yuan in cash, a computer, a printer and other valuables. She was tried on November 25 that year and sentenced to five years in prison.
