(Minghui.org) Minghui.org previously reported on the death of Mr. Zhou Xiancheng shortly after he finished serving an unknown prison term for practicing Falun Gong.
New information has emerged that Mr. Zhou, an 84-year-old resident of Macheng City, Hubei Province, was likely sentenced in late December 2021 or early January 2022. He was admitted to the Fanjiatai Prison in January 2022 and put in the team for newly admitted inmates.
The prison guards ordered Mr. Zhou to renounce his faith. He refused to comply and called out “Falun Dafa is good” instead.
The guards taunted Mr. Zhou for being jailed when he was already in his 80s. They didn’t allow him to trim his fingernails or toenails. His cellmates removed the meat from his meals and accused him of fighting to get the meat back.
Mr. Zhou was transferred to a different team in April 2022. Details of his persecution there remain to be investigated. He died on January 25, 2025, not long after he was released.
Prior to his last persecution episode, Mr. Zhou was arrested eight other times, one of which followed a three-year prison term.
Mr. Zhou’s second to last arrest took place on March 15, 2015, when he was 75 years old. He was arrested by officers from the Pantang Police Station in Wuhan City, the capital of Hubei, for talking to people about Falun Gong there. He was detained at the Xinzhou District Detention Center in Wuhan. The Xinzhou District Court held two hearings of his case on June 15 and July 17, 2015, before sentencing him to a three-year prison term on July 20. His family were kept in the dark about the entire prosecution process.
While serving time in Fanjiatai Prison, Mr. Zhou was beaten by the inmates and hospitalized. When his family demanded to visit him in February 2016, the prison requested that they obtain a letter from the 610 Office verifying that they didn’t practice Falun Gong themselves. It’s not clear whether the family did so.
Mr. Zhou was released on March 5, 2018, only to be arrested again at his home in Macheng, by officers from the Pantang Police Station at around 8 p.m. on March 28, 2021. Despite the fact that his wife had Alzheimer’s disease and all of their children were working out of town, the police nonetheless took Mr. Zhou to the Liuji Brainwashing Center in Xinzhou District, Wuhan.
Mr. Zhou was transferred to the Xinzhou District Detention Center weeks later. Although the detention center initially rejected his admission due to his advanced age, they were forced to take him by Zhu Xingang, head of the Xinzhou District Police Department.
Mr. Zhou was later secretly sentenced to an unknown prison term and taken to the Fanjiatai Prison to serve time. He was likely released in early January 2025, and died shortly after.
84-Year-Old Man Dies Shortly After Serving Second Prison Term for Practicing Falun Gong