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Disabled Falun Gong Practitioner Zhang Shengfan killed by police in China. (Falun Dafa Information Centre, June 20, 2001) Mr. Zhang Shengfan, a 38 year old disabled resident of Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province of China died in police custody on June 12th, just three days after police dragged him from his home. Sources say Mr. Zhang a Falun Gong practitioner, had been beaten to death. Zhang Shengfan, a small thin man, suffered from a disability that required him to use double canes for walking. Zhang was friendly, dexterous and quick-witted. He had been arbitrarily detained four times for a total of nine months for being a Falun Gong practitioner. At about 7 o'clock in the morning of June 9th, 2001, witnesses say four or five policemen broke into Zhang's residence and tried to take him away. Zhang was still in bed at the time. Witnesses say they saw several policemen throw Zhang into a vehicle. He struggled to get out, only to be kicked back. His head was forcefully pushed under the seat of the van, with his neck bent and his body flattened out. Witnesses report that the police manhandled Zhang, a disabled person, "as if he were a sparrow". Even as the van departed, they could see that several people were still pummeling him as though in a frenzy inside the van. It was said that when the police vehicle stopped at the Shuangchange detention centre, onlookers only saw a battered body being unloaded from it. Three days later, on June 12th, Zhang was sent to the emergency room at 9:50 a.m. Doctors said that the man was dead before he arrived. It was not until 8:00 a.m. of June 13th that Zhang's family was notified of his death, but the local authorities forbade his family from seeing the body. Nor were they allowed to invite forensic doctors to do an investigation. At the time of writing, his family still does not know the whereabouts of his body. Mr. Zhang is the third Falun Gong practitioner who has been tortured to death in this little town in the past year. If you would like to sign a petition to urge China to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Ottawa Citizen, June 23, 2001