Mr. Liu Yan, male, 34, from Qing'an County, Heilongjiang Province. Since he refused to denounce Falun Gong, the local police arrested and tortured him many times. One time, Mr. Liu, along with other practitioners, went on a group hunger strike to protest the ill treatment. Wang Zhilong, Vice Party Secretary of the police department, dragged Mr. Liu out for corporal punishment. He whipped Mr. Liu with bamboo sticks, insulted him and administered force-feeding on him. Mr. Liu was force fed high-density brine that went into his lungs. As a result, his lungs were swollen, he coughed, had a fever, spit blood, and passed blood in his stool.

On January 17, 2001, Mr. Liu and 10 other practitioners were arrested for distributing Falun Gong materials. In order to extort information about the source of the materials, Wang Zhilong, and former Political Chief Ye Guilin, tied up Mr. Liu and two other practitioners with thin ropes and hung them up. They then slapped them in the face, kicked them with leather shoes, and beat their ribs with hard objects. The practitioners had wounds all over their bodies, and their faces were swollen beyond recognition. Still the police could not get any information from them. Furious, the police decided to send Mr. Liu and another 5 practitioners to Suihua Labor Camp. Because Mr. Liu was in critical condition, the labor camp refused to take him. However, under orders from higher authorities, Mr. Liu was illegally sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor.

At the labor camp, because of the long term detention, the hunger strikes, and the torture he suffered, Mr. Liu, already in critical condition, demonstrated many pathogenic symptoms: his feet were swollen, he had a fever, he coughed, he spit blood, and his lungs were again swollen as well. He passed away on July 21, 2002, at the age of 34.

type=Case, Death; type=Case, Freedom of Expression; type=Labor Camp, Suihua Labor Camp; location=Heilongjiang, Suihua;