Party Secretary of Wuhan Municipal Police Department:

Greetings!

We are family members of a Falun Gong practitioner. We fully support the "Activities of Education" in the police system of Wuhan City to improve the working quality of police. However, some time ago our family members experienced an illegal body search at the Hankou Train Station by plainclothes police without any legal procedures. They were locked into a close-door "Falun Gong Education Class" in Etouwan against their will for and detained for an unlimited period, and no family members were allowed to visit them. Among the detained practitioners there, some have been detained for up to 8 months. Some policemen took away their money without giving them a receipt. Some policemen even labeled them as anti-revolutionary.

Recently we learned from an indirect source that small cells were equipped there to punish the detained practitioners at will. Even worse, they were handcuffed and put into the cells, and were not allowed to change their clothes even when some female practitioners' period began. On the early morning of October 19, instructor Wang brutally beat over a dozen practitioners who attempted to practice Falun Gong exercises. After the division head named "He" arrived in the morning, he punished 4 practitioners by forcing them to stand in the rain. When the other 9 practitioners saw that no food was given to the 4 practitioners, they were also forced to stand in the rain. Seeing that, "He" called for a stalwart roughneck named Jin from Qiaotou police station to beat the 13 practitioners. They forced them to kneel down in the mud, or they would be heavily beaten with brooms and wooden boards. Some practitioners' nose, mouth and teeth were beaten until bleeding and they became battered all over their body. It was not until 6:00PM that practitioners who were over 60 years old were allowed to stand up. The rest were not allowed to stand up until 8:00PM. All of them were not allowed to eat for the entire day and were not allowed to use the bathroom. They were all soaked from standing in the rain. A 63-year-old lady was injured on her waist and legs from Jin's kicking. Long hours of kneeling in the rain along with the wounds made her unable to stand up. She could not walk normally for the next several days. How can that be called an "Education Class"? Instead, it should be called a "concentration camp". How could a lady of over 60 years old be anti-revolutionary?

Their neighbors, relatives and friends all know that they are good people and they did nothing wrong. The government boasts of "ruling the country by law". Even the prisoners convicted of capital crimes are entitled to be visited. However, practitioners are not allowed a visit from their family members. Even now we do not know which law they broke. How can the government treat them in the same way as it treats criminals? How can they be deprived of their basic personal freedom that is guaranteed by the Constitution and state law? Isn't the government staging a second "Cultural Revolution"?

In the last few days, we consulted several legal experts and learned that, according to clause 238, 245 and 248 of the Criminal Law, the actions of the policemen had constituted the crime of illegal detention, illegal search and torturing detainees. We are reporting them to your police department. Please take immediate action to investigate the case and eliminate those corrupt members from the police teams.

Crime reporting telephone hotline: 011-86-27-8539-6666 or 011-86-110

Thank you,

Crime reporter: family members of a group of Falun Gong practitioners

October 30, 2000