(Minghui.org) One week after Ms. Lu Yan, a resident of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, applied for her passport, she was notified that although it had been issued, officers from the local Domestic Security Division had confiscated it. That took place on November 28, 2015.
Ms. Lu went to the Domestic Security Division to ask about her passport on December 15, 2015. After checking her ID, two police officers took her into the utility room inside the reception office. One officer talked to her, while the other videotaped their conversation.
They insisted that she wasn't allowed to leave the country because she practices Falun Gong, even though Ms. Lu pointed out that the Chinese Constitution guarantees freedom of belief and that there was no law against it.
On December 29, Ms. Lu returned to the Exit and Entry Administration Bureau, where she had first applied for the passport, to ask for an update. The receptionist replied that they couldn't help her, that she would have to wait for further notice from the Domestic Security Division.
Police Target Her for Seeking Her Father's Release
Ms. Lu, 32, was blacklisted and arrested in 2008 and again in 2009 while seeking the release of her father, who was arrested and sentenced to four years for practicing Falun Gong in 2008.
While trying to rescue her father, she began to practice Falun Gong herself. She was arrested for the third time in 2013 and detained in Shangfangshan Brainwashing Center for 18 days. She was monitored around the clock, subjected to brainwashing, and interrogated about who submitted the account of her father's persecution to the Minghui website.
Front gate of the Shangfangshan Brainwashing Center
While she was detained in the brainwashing center, her grandmother, in her 80s, was very anxious and worried about her safety. She had no appetite and was hospitalized. When Ms. Lu was released, she went to the hospital, where her grandmother was already in a coma. She passed away four days later.
Ms. Lu with her grandmother at the hospital
Lawsuit Against Former Dictator Another Possible Trigger for Confiscated Passport
Ms. Lu suspects that her criminal complaint against the former dictator Jiang Zemin for initiating the persecution of Falun Gong was another trigger for the police to confiscate her passport.
“The persecution I have been subjected to, including three arrests and having my home ransacked twice, has caused my family tremendous stress. The police also defamed me at my workplace, damaging my reputation among my colleagues and friends. My 18-day detention in the brainwashing center directly contributed to my grandmother's death. After she died, my grandfather also passed away. The persecution brought my peaceful life to an end,” Ms. Lu wrote in her complaint.
