84-Year-Old Falun Gong Practitioner Liu Huiju of Shuangyashan, Heilongjiang, Dies Nine Months After Being forcibly Imprisoned
(Rights Defense Network Information Center report)On July 24, 2026, this website learned: On July 31, 2025, 83-year-old Liu Huiju, a Falun Gong practitioner from Shuangyashan, Heilongjiang Province, was forcibly imprisoned by the Chinese Communist authorities, and nine months later, on May 7, 2026, Liu Huiju was persecuted to death in prison。
Liu Huiju: Born in April 1942, she was the family member of an employee of the Jixian Mine, and currently lived in the Nanshi Residential Area of Jianshan District, Shuangyashan City。 She began practicing Falun Gong on June 26, 1996。
After the Chinese Communist Party began persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, she was frequently persecuted by local Chinese Communist personnel for persisting in her faith。
In 2020, she was arrested、 her home was ransacked、 and she was placed under residential surveillance for six months, after which she was released on bail pending trial; in 2021, she was framed and referred to the procuratorate and court, and on November 30, 2021, public security, procuratorate, and court personnel from Shuangyashan City held a trial at her home, sentencing her to one and a half years in prison and fining her 1,000 yuan。 Because she was extremely frail, the court was unable to imprison her at the time, but it never abandoned its efforts to imprison and persecute her。 In early July 2025, police again broke into her home, and this time they carried her onto a 120 emergency ambulance on a stretcher, taking her to the hospital for examination, and, regardless of the examination results, forcibly confining her in a detention center。 On July 31, she was transferred to the Heilongjiang Women's Prison。 During her nine months in prison, she was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment four times。 The last time her family visited her, the elderly woman no longer recognized anyone。 On May 7, 2026, Liu Huiju died wrongfully in prison, at the age of 84。
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