(Minghui.org) A 55-year-old resident in Jinan City, Shandong Province has been detained for three months for practicing Falun Gong. She is now facing indictment for her faith after the local procuratorate approved her arrest in October 2019.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body practice based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. It has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since July 1999.
The police forced the security personnel from Ms. Liu Xiaohui’s neighborhood to knock on her door at around 7 a.m. on September 19, 2019. When Ms. Liu opened the door, three plainclothes officers standing behind the security guard rushed in.
Over a dozen police officers showed up later and ransacked her home for eight hours. They confiscated a desktop computer, a laptop, printers, Falun Gong books, and other valuables.
The police took Ms. Liu to Wujingshang Police Station in the afternoon and interrogated her for nine hours. She was sent to the Jinan City Detention Center around 1:00 a.m..
More than ten other practitioners in Jinan were also arrested on the same day. Ms. Liu is still kept in custody, while most of the other practitioners have been released.
It was reported that the local Domestic Security Division and Political and Legal Affairs Committee are behind the arrests, which came about two weeks before the Communist Party’s 70th National Day on October 1.
The police monitored and followed the practitioners for months before arresting them.
Tianqiao District Procuratorate questioned Ms. Liu a month into her detention. The police demanded her to sign her arrest warrant two days later, but she refused.
The police also attempted to force other local Falun Gong practitioners to provide information about Ms. Liu or become a witness against her, otherwise they may be arrested themselves. While those practitioners refused to comply, they were under tremendous pressure from the threats.
The police also set up surveillance cameras around Ms. Liu’s home in an attempt to monitor and catch any local practitioners who may come to visit her.