(Minghui.org) Nine Falun Gong practitioners in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province were arrested during a gathering at one of the practitioners’ homes on May 13, 2021.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhao Li and Ms. Jin Yijun were detained for 15 days and released on May 30, while the other seven practitioners were released over the next two days. Ms. Qi Lijun, who hosted the gathering at her home, has been forced to live away from home due to frequent harassment after her release.
Ms. Zhao was tortured in custody. She was arrested again on June 22 and is still detained at the time of writing.
Arrests
Ms. Fan Yumei, Ms. Zhu Xiaochun, Ms. Ma (whose first name remains unknown), Ms. Li Xiulan, Ms. Hou Aiqin, and Ms. Chen Xiufen, all in their 70s or 80s, were walking upstairs to Ms. Qi’s apartment at around 2:00 p.m. on May 31, 2021, when they were seized by the police and directly taken to the Jiayuguan Road Police Station.
Ms. Jin and Ms. Zhao came after 3 p.m., with no knowledge of the above six practitioners’ arrests one hour earlier. At about 7:30 p.m., the police knocked on Ms. Qi’s door. After she refused to open the door, the police slammed it open a few minutes later and barged in. Ms. Qi, Ms. Jin, and Ms. Zhao were all arrested. The police searched Ms. Qi’s home thoroughly and even checked whether there were things under her comforter.
The three practitioners were then taken to Jiayuguan Road Police Station for interrogation, where they saw the six practitioners arrested earlier.
Interrogation
Ms. Qi, Ms. Jin and Ms. Zhao were placed in separate interrogation rooms and Ms. Zhao and Ms. Qi were forced to sit on metal chairs.
When police officer Su Yufeng interrogated Ms. Zhao, she asked him to show the legal basis for the persecution. Su said that he was ordered to summon her, but refused to show her the summoned document.
Later, another policeman chatted with Ms. Zhao and asked her what’s the principles of Falun Gong. When Ms. Zhao talked about the basic facts of Falun Gong, the officer wrote it down as an interrogation record, but without allowing Ms. Zhao to read it. To prevent her from reading the interrogation legal procedure posted on the wall, the police also took away Ms. Zhao’s glasses and refused to return them.
While trying to force Ms. Zhao to do the COVID-19 test, the police forcibly held her arm, causing it to bruise. Her wrists were also bruised as the handcuffs were too tight.
The other six practitioners who were arrested before the above three practitioners were ordered to sign statements slandering Falun Gong, report their family information and who organized the gathering. After overnight interrogation, they were released in the early morning of May 14, but have been constantly harassed by the staff members of their local residential committees.
Ms. Qi, Ms. Jin and Ms. Zhao were taken to Taoshuping Lockup on the evening of May 15. Due to Ms. Qi’s advanced age, she was rejected admission by the detention center and then released.
Detention
Both Ms. Zhao and Ms. Jin were given fifteen days of detention. To protest the arbitrary detention, both of them refused to wear detention center uniforms or do the role calls. The guards later forcibly put on the uniforms on them, during an inspection by the higher-ups on May 26, 2021.
As the two practitioners refused to do roll call during an inspection by the lockup’s director and the deputy director on May 28, they were publicly reprimanded and threatened with extended detention.
Ms. Zhao repeatedly demanded the directors provide documents about the legal basis of the persecution, only to be tied up to a bed for a day, with her arms and legs tied to the two sides of the bed.
Elderly Practitioners Living Alone Targeted
In the past few years, the officers of the Jiayuguan Road Police Station have been targeting elderly practitioners living on their own.
Ms. Qi lives alone with her daughter living in another city.
Ms. Li Ya’s only child works in another city and could not come back to help her mother’s case after her arrest in 2019.
After Ms. Ma Jun (no relation to Ms. Ma, one of the nine practitioners mentioned above) was arrested in 2020, she had no family members able to help with the rescue effort.
Mr. Han Xu, divorced, has no children. His father is in his 90s and his only sister is in her 70s. After he was arrested, his father and sister struggled to rescue her.
Practitioners Harassed by Police from Jiayuguan Road Police Station
Below are two more cases of practitioners harassed by the same police station that arrested the nine practitioners mentioned above.
Ms. Liu Guilan Repeatedly Harassed
Three officers from Jiayuguan Road Police Station broke into Ms. Liu Guilan’s home and raided her place on September 4, 2019. They confiscated her Falun Gong books and other Falun Gong materials and took her to Minhang Police Station, where she was held for more than two hours.
After Ms. Liu’s daughter was called in, they asked her to sign and fingerprint on some documents and released her. As Ms. Liu was almost blind, she couldn’t see what she signed.
The next day, three police officers went to her home again and forced her to sign more documents. They threatened to take her away if she refused.
Staff from Jiayuguan residential committee came to Ms. Liu’s home every month to harass her since April 2020. They told her in August 2020 that her name was added to the blacklist of the Ministry of Public Security and that she could no longer travel by plane or train. The police also ordered her to verbally abuse Falun Gong and its founder.
Ms. Dong Xiulan was Harassed in June 2021
When Ms. Dong Xiulan returned home around noon on June 8, 2021, nine officers from the local police station and the local residential committee were waiting at the door.
They asked her to sign the letter to renounce Falun Gong, but she refused.
A police officer and a staff member from the local residential committee came to Ms. Dong’s home again the next day. Ms. Dong told them that it was illegal for them to harass her and she would sue them. Then they left.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Jiayuguan Road Police Station: +86-931-2318866, +86-931-5166617Wei Xiangkong (魏向孔), police chief: +86-13399313419Lu Chao (卢超), police officer: +86-13919830983Su Yufeng (苏煜锋), police officer: +86-13399317374
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
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