(Minghui.org) Mr. Wang Jinping was arrested in Wuhan, Hubei Province on March 9 while distributing materials exposing the persecution of Falun Gong.
The police never informed the 37-year-old's family of his whereabouts. It wasn't until April 3 that his loved ones finally discovered that he is being held at Banqiao Brainwashing Center, also called the Hubei Province Legal Education Institute.
Mr. Wang's family grew suspicious after an officer asked if he had any history of mental illness. After all, they had heard many stories about other Falun Gong practitioners being given mind-altering drugs at the same brainwashing center for refusing to give up their belief in Falun Gong.
They are concerned about the likelihood that Mr. Wang had already been subjected to the same abuse. Their request to see him was turned down by the brainwashing center.
Mr. Wang's family went to Wangsongyuan Street Police Station on March 29 to inquire about his whereabouts, after losing contact with him for weeks. The police said that he had been transferred to Jianghan District Legal Education Center after being held at the Jianghan District Detention Center for 15 days. The police refused to give them the education center's address.
The family asked around, but with little success. On April 2, they happened upon a taxi driver that did know.
The driver took them there and pointed to a metal gate: “Here it is.”
The sign hanging outside read “Wuhan City Jiangcheng Landscape Nurseries.”
Three security guards came out to see who was knocking on the door. One of them wrote down the taxi driver's license plate number, while another questioned Mr. Wang's family about how they got there.
The guards confirmed that Mr. Wang was once kept there, but had been transferred away a few days earlier. They did not disclose where he was taken.
Mr. Wang's family went to check Banqiao Brainwashing Center the next morning, as they knew it was notorious for detaining local Falun Gong practitioners. They knocked on the door and shouted for someone to come out. For several hours, nobody answered the door. A man finally emerged at around 11 a.m. and acknowledged that Mr. Wang was being detained there. He refused to let them in to visit Mr. Wang.
Mr. Wang's parents tried again the following day, but were again turned away. They were told that Mr. Wang would be detained indefinitely as long as he refused to renounce his belief.
Gu Jianqiao (辜建桥), party secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee in Jianghan District: +86-278-5481689 (Office), +86-278-5789968 (Home), +86-13907133233 (Cell)Xiao Guoxiong (肖国雄), head of the Jianghan District 610 Office: +86-278-5481692 (Office), +86-278-5481802 (610 Office)Xu Jinghua (徐精华), political department of Wuhan City Police Department: +86-27-85396501 (Office), +86-27-81803166 (Home)Wuhan City Domestic Security Division: +86-27-85393500, +86-27-85393600