(Minghui.org) A few years back, in a certain region of Shandong Province, 13 Falun Gong practitioners in 13 different neighborhoods were arrested at the same time. This year, police raided the homes of more than twenty practitioners in the same region on the same day.
In both incidents, the affected practitioners were arrested after their cell phones had been tapped and their locations tracked by police. I'd like to remind everyone of the issue of cell phone security again.
Before this year’s incident, one local practitioner had noticed that some practitioners talked about truth-clarification projects on the phone without any reservation. For instance, they casually chatted about which practitioners had which types of materials, and one of the practitioners mentioned in the phone conversation had to move as a precaution.
Most of the practitioners in this region had filed lawsuits against former Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin with their real identities. The local police have their information in their systems. They could easily track down other practitioners through one practitioner's phone records so as to monitor more practitioners.
When arrested practitioners were tortured or threatened while in detention, some of them were unable to endure the torture or maintain a clear mind and thus became vulnerable to deceit and intimidation by police.
For instance, the police may claim that other practitioners had given information about the practitioner being interrogated when, in fact, the information was obtained by police surveillance of the interrogated practitioner. If the interrogated practitioner falls into the trap and confesses, it would then be used as evidence against him or herself as well as other practitioners.
One lawyer who has defended many practitioners saw from court documents that some practitioners confessed to police all kinds of information, even things unrelated to their cases or things that happened many years ago.
To help improve the safety of practitioners, I would like to share the following tips:
1. Do not ever bring our cell phones with us when visiting other practitioners' homes;2. Use internal emails if we can. Do not include sensitive information in emails;3. Avoid discussing projects at home or in the car;4. Do not inquire about practitioners that we do not know;5. Do not inquire about projects in which we are not involved;6. Read safety-themed articles posted on Minghui.org.
I sincerely hope that we can all pay attention to cell phone security, which is essential for everyone's safety. We should also pass relevant safety and security information to practitioners who are unable to access the Internet.
Please point out anything inappropriate.