BBC Monitoring: Hong Kong Falun Gong followers call for release of detainees in China

03/10/2002

A group of 30 Falun Gong followers have marched peacefully through busy streets to the central government liaison office to petition for the release of two Hong Kong [Falun Gong] members. They held cardboard signs showing a picture of Lui Pak-fung, who is reported to be under house arrest with her mother in Guangxi Province. The two are reported to be awaiting trial on charges that have not been specified.

The protesters also called for the release of Hong Kong businessman and Falun Gong member Chu O-ming. Chu was arrested in Beijing and sentenced to five years' jail in Tianjin in 2000 after filing a lawsuit against President Jiang Zemin for his crackdown on [Falun Gong].