(Minghui.org) A Minghui correspondent from Hunan Province has reported that at least nine Falun Gong practitioners from Xiangtan City continue to be detained in prisons, detention centers, and psychiatric hospitals. Please be aware of their ongoing status and do your best to raise awareness of this situation and demand their safe return.
Mr. Xie Wangming is deputy chief of a police patrol unit and a former Air Force officer who completed his military service in 2002. Initially, he served as a police officer in the military reserves, and later he entered the Jiangdong District Police Department in Xiangtan City. Mr. Xie has been incarcerated on two occasions. During the 2008 Olympics, he was sentenced to seven and a half years of imprisonment and is currently being held at Wuling Prison in Changde City, Hunan Province.
Forced to leave home due to the persecution, Ms. Huang Duohong, a stationary shop owner, was illegally arrested in 2011 and secretly detained at the Xiangtan City Detention Center. Although very weak, she was able to escape on October 28, while undergoing a physical exam at a hospital. The 610 Office conducted a manhunt to find her. As a result, she was arrested at the home of Ms. Xiong Qiuling at 7:00 p.m. that same day. Ms. Huang was sentenced to ten years in prison based upon bogus charges. On November 8, 2013 she was transferred from the Xiangtan City Detention Center to the Hunan Province Women's Prison. She remains there today and continues to be subjected to persecution.
Three police officers came to an apartment complex owned by Ms. Hu Yan on the morning of August 24, 2011. They planned to perform surveillance of the residents in the building and asked Ms. Hu to show them her rental property on the second floor. At first, Ms. Hu refused the request, but the police threatened her, “If you don't open the door, we will break in.”
Under the pressure, Ms. Hu opened the door. The officers entered the room and confiscated the belongings of Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yao Jianping. At the same time, Ms Yao was arrested by a dozen police from the Xiangtan Domestic Security Division and the Yuetang District Police Department. She was held at the Xiangtan Detention Center.
The police noticed a portrait of Master Li Hongzhi, and other Falun Gong materials at Ms. Hu’s house and inquired as to where they came from. They forced Ms. Hu to open her daughter's computer and confiscated it after they discovered electronic versions of Falun Gong books stored in the computer.
Ms. Hu Yan and Ms. Yao Jianping were secretly sentenced to three and seven years of imprisonment respectively on May 25, 2012. They are currently detained at the Hunan Province Women's Prison.
Ms. Yang Shiyi was arrested by officers from the Daoling Police Station in Ningxiang on January 14, 2013, and detained at the Ningxiang County Detention Center. Mr. Yang was interrogated many times by agents from the Ningxiang County Domestic Security Division and threatened with prison if she did not give them the information they demanded. She is still being held at the Ningxiang County Detention Center.
Ms. Lu Mengjun and Ms. Liu Liyan were arrested on September 1, 2013, while distributing Falun Gong informational materials. They were transferred from the Xiangtan County Detention Center to the Sanjiaoping Detention Center.
Mr. Zhao Xianghai, a crane operator at Xiangtan Iron and Steel Company, is widely regarded as a good person by his colleagues and neighbors. He has not been known to have any mental health problems. However, because of his belief in Falun Gong, the local 610 Office officials have ordered him held in Xiangtan City Mental Hospital for the past six years.
Mr. Zhang Wei worked in the Nanhai region of Guangdong Province. He was arrested in December 2011 by officers from the Guichen Police Station while distributing Falun Gong materials in the Nanhai region. He was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment.