(Minghui.org) A Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province resident died on May 22, 2022, while serving a ten-year term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

When Mr. Yin Guozhi’s two sisters were finally allowed to check his body on June 22, they were scared to see his grimaced face, with bared teeth and protruding eyes. They didn’t dare to take another look or examine whether he had any injuries on his body. Moments later, the Shenyang No.1 Prison sent his body for cremation and his family returned home with his ashes.

Mr. Yin Guozhi

Mr. Yin was arrested on September 26, 2019, while living away from home to avoid being arrested for his faith. The authorities secretly sentenced him to ten years and didn’t update his family of his case status, until he was already transferred to prison.

On December 31, 2019, three months following Mr. Yin’s arrest, his wife Ms. Fu Jinghua, who was also in displacement to avoid being targeted for practicing Falun Gong, died in her rental place, succumbing to years of mental and physical distress.

Mr. Yin was first held at Jinzhou Prison and then transferred to the Shenyang No.1 Prison six months later. His family went to the Shenyang No.1 Prison twice to visit him, but they were rejected both times, as the authorities cited the pandemic as an excuse. The prison never allowed Mr. Yin to call home either, so his family was kept in the dark of his situation in the prison.

On March 8, 2022, two prison guards and a village official went to Mr. Yin’s home. They claimed that he developed late-stage lung cancer and was receiving oxygen in the hospital. His family was ordered to cover his medical expenses.

The guards didn’t provide any diagnosis from the hospital and only said that Mr. Yin had pain in his chest. His family questioned why Mr. Yin, a healthy man at the time of the arrest, developed the condition within such a short time in prison. The guards remained silent. The family didn’t pay for his medical expenses.

Shortly after the prison guards left, they called Mr. Yin’s family and asked them to come to the prison (about 250 miles away) to see a video of him. They went there and saw a video lasting about seven seconds. Mr. Yin didn’t talk in the video. He was seen wearing a hospital gown and appearing emaciated. His family noticed a sunken area on his head near his right temple, and they suspected that he was severely beaten in the prison.

The next time the family heard from the prison was on May 22, when they were informed of his death. The prison didn’t elaborate on the cause of his death, and only asked his family to come to claim his body.

As his family was on their way to the prison, a guard called them and ordered them to follow 14-day quarantine procedures before they could be given access to his body. Unable to afford the quarantine cost and lengthy waiting period, the family had to give up taking back his body.

Mr. Yin’s family contacted the prison again on June 22 and was allowed to see his body. Moments after they saw his body, the prison rushed to have it cremated, without providing further information about the cause of his death.

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