March 30, 2002
A Falun Gong practitioner from Barrie was expected to return to Toronto last night after she was arrested in China on Thursday during a protest.
Christine Loftus, 22, and her American boyfriend Jason Pomerleau, 24, were reportedly arrested while handing out pro-Falun Gong pamphlets at a market in Beijing to protest the Communist government's ban on the spiritual movement.
"I'm very relieved to hear she's coming back and she's safe now," Loftus' twin brother, Jason, said when he learned of the news.
"The situation there has reached a state of crisis."
Earlier, Jason Loftus had viewed a picture of a man and woman being led away by a cluster of uniformed officers.
Cindy Gu, a Falun Gong contact person, said the photo, which the group believes to be of Loftus' arrest, was taken by a bystander and was found on a Chinese Web site.
Jason Loftus, who also practices Falun Gong, was expelled from China in February after spending 27 hours in jail for unfurling a banner in Tiananmen Square.
http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/02n2.html
Category: Persecution Outside China
