(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yi Wenjun, a 50-year old artist from Chengdu, has been arrested several times for her belief. Her husband, Mr. Ding Zhongbin, a 53-year-old physics teacher, has been detained for a total of five years and nine months.
The couple was arrested again on October 17, 2017, one day before the 19th National People's Congress. They were taken to Pixian Detention Center for 37 days and put under house arrest for six months after their release. Ms. Yi was arrested again on November 30 and held for 10 days.
In her account below, Ms. Yi describes the persecution she and her husband have endured.
Most Recent Illegal Search and Arrest
I was doing some sketches while my husband rested in bed when police officers from Caotang Police Station appeared at our door around 10 a.m. on October 17, 2017. They insisted that I open the door. If I didn't, they said they would break in.
I asked them why and what law we had broken. They answered, “A 'census.'” Without opening the door, I asked them to leave as I did not have time to deal with them.
They then asked me if we owned the house or rented it. I responded that their question was irrelevant.
My husband heard the argument and got out of bed even though he did not feel well. He gave the police his ID card number. When my husband told them who I was, they wanted to see my ID card, which had taken me more than five years after my detention to get in 2008.
I opened the door and saw two policemen. One of them was Zheng Xiaohong, who had been involved in repeatedly persecuting me. I decided to face them with dignity and showed them my ID.
I said, “We practitioners follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Why don't you arrest actual criminals instead of harassing and persecuting us? We are not afraid of you. We even dared to sue Jiang Zemin with our real names. We don't want to be bothered. You understand that your so-called 'knocking-on-doors' harassment is illegal.”
Once I let them enter the house, Zheng started to rifle through our belongings in the living room. I chastised him for poor etiquette, discourtesy, and not following police rules.
“These are Falun Gong materials,” said Zheng, pointing at our computer, printer, and some journals including Minghui Weekly.
I replied, “We are practitioners. Of course we would have such things.”
Zheng then tried to open the door of our “Buddha Room.” I stopped him and my husband said, “Everything inside this room can be seen in public. You cannot open the door without a search warrant.”
As Zheng made a phone call, I advised him to stop persecuting Falun Gong, but he ignored me.
Dozens of officers showed up. Song Lin, a criminal investigation officer from Caotang Police Station, came with a search warrant and camera.
I told them the facts about Falun Gong while my husband tried to hide his education certificate and 200 yuan in paper bills with messages about Falun Dafa printed on them. The census officer from Hongpailou Police Station took the currency and gave my husband a receipt for the amount. My husband asked him how he knew where we lived and he pointed at Zheng.
I said, “What you all have done against Falun Gong practitioners in the past 18 years is illegal. You have abused your power.”
They seemed quite excited when they saw Master Li Hongzhi's photo and Dafa books in the Buddha Room, as if they had solved a major case. I told them there would be payback for the bad things they had done.
They just laughed. One said, “All the practitioners we've arrested have said that, and they were still sentenced to years in prison.”
My husband and I were taken to Caotang Police Station around 3 p.m. The police then ransacked our house and confiscated many personal belongings.
My husband was sick and shivered in the cold when we were arrested. He wore only light athletic clothes and summer shoes. We were not given anything to eat the entire day. I asked our guard to buy a bowl of porridge for us and he refused.
Illegally Detained in Chengdu Pixian Detention Center
We were taken to Huangtianba for interrogation late in the evening and for physical exams at the Chengdu Western Hospital.
Early on October 18, we were taken to Pixian Detention Center and strip searched. The detention center was overcrowded. Inmates were treated like pigs in a pigpen and were forced to sleep on a damp floor extending all the way to the restroom. Everyone fought to use the restroom.
We were held at the detention center for 37 days. My husband and I were interrogated again by officers from Caotang Police Station after more than 20 days in detention and then by Qingyang District Procuratorate employees a few days later.
On the second day of his detention, my husband was taken to Qingyang District People's Hospital. He was forced to take unknown drugs and intravenous injections. In handcuffs and shackles, he was also forced to submit to cruel “checkups.” He later said that he was not sure he would survive because he knew that many practitioners had been tortured to death in this hospital.
We were released the evening of November 24 but were told we would be under house arrest for the next six months. When we were reunited, I could hardly recognize my husband. He looked like a different person—he was bony and wrinkled and had a full beard.
I do not know what kind of drugs my husband was forced to take. He has been weak and drowsy since we were released.
We were dropped off at the police station. The police threatened to arrest us again if we did not “behave well.” When we got home, we realized that the house was not habitable. The power had been cut off and the food in the refrigerator had spoiled and smelled horrible.
Closely Monitored
I went to the police station the next day and asked to have my confiscated items returned, including cash. I also asked to be compensated for the losses caused by the power being cut off. I was told to talk to Zheng and Song Lin on Monday, November 27.
When I returned to the police station that Monday, I was not allowed to see Zheng or Song. Instead, I was directed here and there. I clarified the truth to the police and told them to stop persecuting Falun Gong.
Finally, I left them a copy of a report from the Minghui website, which had news about our persecution, and a copy of the criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin that I filed on January 12, 2016.
I did not give up and returned to the station the next day. I had a long discussion with the police and, when I would not leave, Song finally came out. He refused to return my personal belongings or to pay for the food that had spoiled.
He told me to clean up the mess at my own expense. He rolled up the Minghui report and the criminal complaint and threw them on the floor. Our lawyer later told me that he was threatened with handcuffs if he took our case.
As I was about to leave, the officer on duty shut the main door and pushed me out into the courtyard. Zheng came out and said, “How dare you distribute Falun Gong stuff here!”
“You have committed crimes by persecuting Falun Gong,” I said. “We distribute those brochures so that you will understand the facts. For your own good, stop this wicked behavior.”
He ordered me to move out of my house and then called my landlord to terminate my rental contract. He threatened to throw out my belongings if I did not move out the next day. He also prohibited me from renting a house inside the Qingyang District.
My computer and cell phone were confiscated during the arrest and I had no way to search for rental houses online, so I went out after 6 a.m. the next day to talk to rental agents. My husband called around 11 a.m. to say that Zheng and his accomplice had been pounding on the door.
Another Illegal Arrest
We planned to return to our hometown so that my husband could recover from the poor treatment in detention. On November 30, three police officers, including Zheng, came while we waited for a moving company to load up our furniture.
Inside the house, Zheng demanded to know where I was the day before and where my husband was now.
“He can go anywhere he wants,” I said. “Don't you think you’ve done enough? You should know that bad deeds will incur evil returns.”
He said, “You are still under house arrest.”
“What house arrest?” I countered. “Didn't you already abuse your power by forcing the landlord to terminate our rental contract?”
Zheng told me I had to go with him. Two officers, one on each side, grabbed me and took me to the police station. I was detained for several hours, very tired, thirsty, and hungry.
After we left, my husband came home. When I didn't answer the door, he realized that I must have been arrested again. He left to get the last spare house key at a relative's home. The officers tried unsuccessfully to arrest him when he was on his way home.
When my husband vacated the premises alone, the officers led by Zheng came again and tried to arrest him.
After 2 p.m., I was taken to Huangtianba. On the way, I asked them to let me retrieve a warmer coat and money for food and water. They refused. They interrogated me again and had me examined again. They wanted to know where I had gotten the Dafa materials and if the Procuratorate and the Supreme Court had received our lawsuits.
I was detained in the Caotang Police Station that night and taken to a hospital next to the station for a urinalysis the next day. I was then sent to the Pixian Detention Center for ten days. Song Lin, Song Quanmin, and Tong He were responsible for my being detained.
In the detention center, I learned that an elderly practitioner had been detained there for more than two years.
When I was released, I checked my backpack and found that 500 yuan in cash was gone. Also taken was a list of the names and phone numbers of the Caotang Police Station officers and a notebook with other names. They called the names on the list to try to blackmail us.
Previous Harassment
I started practicing Falun Gong in 1996. I was illegally sentenced to three years because I spoke out for Dafa in Beijing after the persecution began in 1999.
On June 9, 2005, Zheng and other officers arrested me for giving a copy of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party to a tourist from Malaysia. Zheng then lied to my mother to convince her to let him in. Petrified, my mother became ill after witnessing them ransack our home.
Zheng and another officer came to our rented residence in April 2008 to harass us. They demanded to see our ID cards and asked which one of us was the painter. I was about five months pregnant at the time. I hurried to escape arrest and miscarried. I later hid to avoid further persecution and, under extreme stress, miscarried again.
My husband filed a criminal complaint with the Beijing Procuratorate and Beijing Supreme Court against Jiang Zemin in August 2015 but was not given a receipt. We later learned that Zheng took the letter from the post office. When I accused him of violating the law, he said that we could go ahead and report him.
We have been harassed frequently and closely monitored since then. Between May and June of 2016, one of my relatives had her electric car stolen shortly after she visited us.
Parties Responsible for Persecuting Us:
Zheng Xiaohong, Caotang Police Station: +086-189808060601
Liu Yuhao, census officer at Hongpailou Police Station: +86-13981866630
Song Lin, Caotang Police Station: +086-028-86633570
Liu Chuan, chief, Caotang Police Station: +086-028-86633570