(Minghui.org) “Mr. Lu will get a four-year term if you hire a Beijing attorney. He will get three years if he is represented by a local attorney,” said Guo Yucheng, a Pingdu City 610 Office staff member, to the family of Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Lu Jianguo.
Mr. Lu, 60, spoke to a man about the persecution of Falun Gong by the communist regime and handed him a pamphlet on November 2, 2016. It turned out that the man worked at the Pingdu 610 Office, an extralegal agency tasked with eradicating the spiritual discipline. The man reported Mr. Lu, who was arrested by officers from the Chengguan Police Station.
The police ransacked Mr. Lu's home the next afternoon and confiscated some personal belongings.
Mr. Lu has since been held in Pingdu City's Mencun Detention Center. The Procuratorate recently approved his arrest.
Mr. Lu's family hired an attorney from Beijing to defend Mr. Lu. The attorney went to meet Mr. Lu on November 23, but detention center personnel informed him that he must get approval from the Pingdu 610 Office.
Guo Yucheng, a staff member at the 610 Office, came to the detention center. The attorney asked Guo, “Why am I not allowed to meet my client here? I had no issue meeting my client at Pudong Detention Center in Jimo City.”
Guo replied, “I don't care what they do at Pudong Detention Center. I have the final say here in Pingdu.”
After a prolonged negotiation, the attorney was allowed to meet with Mr. Lu. He learned that Guo had called Mr. Lu's son and questioned why he hired an attorney.
This arrest came two years after Mr. Lu was last released from a seven-year prison term. A group of plainclothes officers broke into Mr. Lu's home on August 18, 2008. They knocked Mr. Lu unconscious with a metal rod and covered him up with a large burlap sack. He was then held in a police vehicle while officers ransacked his home. They confiscated almost everything in the house, including his bed, and changed the lock.
Arrested for Petitioning Government for Right to Belief
Mr. Lu has been repeatedly arrested and detained since the communist regime started its persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999. Mr. Lu went to Beijing twice that year to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. He was arrested both times.
On the second occasion in November 1999, officers cuffed him and another practitioner together and had them sit on the floor for several days.
Officers from Mr. Lu's local police station took him back to Pingdu City and extorted 5,000 yuan from him.
He was detained for nearly two months; half of the time, he was locked in an abandoned house with other practitioners. The police broke the windows of the house and did not allow them to wear winter jackets.
Mr. Lu was forced to write a guarantee statement renouncing Falun Gong and was released after being extorted about 2,000 yuan. After returning home, he was often harassed and closely monitored by police. He had to leave home in December 2000 to avoid further persecution.
Tortured in Police Custody
Mr. Lu was again arrested on November 17, 2003. Officers tied him to an iron chair for three days and deprived him of sleep. They beat and shocked him using a small electric generator.
The authorities sent Mr. Lu to prison three days later. He was forced to do hard labor and became seriously ill. He was hospitalized and later released on bail.
Mr. Lu had to leave home again to avoid further persecution in December 2003. The Pingdu Police Department then put him on its “most wanted” list.
