(Minghui.org) Tianshui police officers illegally arrested about 30 Falun Gong practitioners and ransacked their homes between 8 and 10 a.m. on December 18, 2013. Mr. Zhang Zhiming, 38, was one of those arrested. He has been detained for more than nine months and is facing trial.
Illegally Arrested Nine Months Ago
Four or five police officers from Qinzhou District stopped Mr. Zhang on his way home. They pushed him to the ground, forcibly handcuffed him and pushed him into a vehicle. The apartment he rented was ransacked. The officers didn't find any 'evidence' in his apartment. They found an “electronic book” when they body-searched him. The electronic book contained Falun Dafa books and exercise music. The officers regarded this as “evidence” and took Mr. Zhang to the detention center of Qinzhou Police Department.
The Qinzhou Police Department submitted his case to the procuratorate twice. The procuratorate returned it to the police department twice because of insufficient evidence of any crime and unclear facts. The police officers continued fabricating evidence. His family went to ask about his case and requested his release, but the officers refused to release him.
Mr. Zhang's case was submitted to the procuratorate for the third time on May 25, 2014. The procuratorate transferred his case to a court on June 13.
Prior Arrests and Persecution
Mr. Zhang previously worked in the grain-management department of Weinan Town, Maiji District, Tianshui. He was searched by a plainclothes officer while walking on the street on May 30, 2005. He was arrested because he had flyers about Falun Gong with him. His family was forced to pay 10,000 yuan before he was released. Mr. Zhang was fired from his job.
Not able to find a local job, Mr. Zhang went to Hutubi County, Xinjiang Autonomous Region to work for a living. He was arrested there on January 29, 2006 because he and other practitioners had made CDs containing information about Falun Gong. The Urumqi Court of Xinjiang sentenced Mr. Zhang to four years of imprisonment for “sabotaging law enforcement” in 2007.
Mr. Zhang was released in 2011 and he returned to his parents' home in Maiji District. Officers from the Maiji District Domestic Security Division often went to harass him, especially near “sensitive dates”. His 80-year-old father was frightened and his neighbors were very nervous.
To avoid such harassment, Mr. Zhang left his parents' home and rented a room in the Qinzhou District. He began working for a private company. He was kindhearted and friendly and treated people sincerely. His boss thought highly of him and he became a valued assistant.
After Mr. Zhang was arrested in 2013, his boss went to the relevant department and tried to bail him out. A person handling the case told his boss, “According to inside information, he is a key technical expert in the Falun Gong group. He cannot be released.”
