Reuters: China Falun Gong Man Dies after Abuse

Hong Kong, June 18, 2000 (Reuters) – A follower of the Falun Gong spiritual movement died after being repeatedly injected with drugs at a mental hospital in China, a Hong Kong human rights group said on Sunday.

The incident brought to at least 22 the number of Falun Gong adherents who have died as a result of abuse by Chinese authorities since a crackdown began last July, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Su Gang, a 32 year old computer engineer in Zibo city in eastern Shandong province, was arrested after petitioning in Beijing this year on behalf of the movement. Police took Su to the hospital on May 23, though he showed no signs of mental disorder and he was given daily shots of a drug that attacks the central nervous system, the Information Centre said in a statement.

Su was released on May 31 after his family staged a protest hunger strike, the statement said.

Su was healthy when he was taken away, but on his return was stiff, slow, weak and refused to eat, the group qouted his father Su De’an as saying. He died on June 10.