(Minghui.org) A Luzhou City, Sichuan Province resident in his 70s was secretly arrested at home in late October 2020 for practicing Falun Gong, and has since been detained incommunicado. Mr. Luo Qingsheng’s family recently learned that he is currently being held in the Gulin County Detention Center.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Luo had been targeted two months before his October arrest. On August 25, 2020, two officers broke into his home, confiscated his Falun Gong materials, and took him to the Gulin County Procuratorate. One prosecutor asked where he obtained the materials and whom he distributed them to.
Mr. Luo refused to answer the questions, but clarified the facts about Falun Gong. He also refused to sign the two-page interrogation record prepared by the police.
One officer called his supervisor and said, “We arrested a Falun Gong practitioner and it’s a big case. What should we do? We are afraid we can’t bear the responsibility if we make the decision [about the case].” While it’s not clear how the officer's supervisor responded to him, Mr. Luo was later released. The police didn’t return the materials confiscated from him. It’s also not clear whether the August arrest prompted his latest arrest.
Past Persecution
Mr. Luo has been arrested several times since the Chinese communist regime began persecuting Falun Gong in 1999. He was given two labor camp terms and sentenced once to four years.
He was sent to a brainwashing center in 2000. On May 13, 2000, because he resisted the persecution, two police officers beat him and left him under the baking sun for over an hour. He was later given two years at the Xinhua Forced Labor Camp, where guards knocked out his teeth.
Mr. Luo was arrested in 2004 and given a term at the Xinhua Forced Labor Camp. Because he shouted “Falun Dafa is good,” the guards held him on the ground, and kicked and beat him. He was put in isolation and forced to wear handcuffs and a metal helmet.
Because he took down a plaque with slanderous words about Falun Gong in April 2005, the guards tied him up, shocked him with electric batons, and beat him with a spiked mace. After he fainted from the torture, the guards ordered inmates to pour cold water onto him to wake him up.
Not long after he was released, Mr. Luo was arrested again on May 24, 2007 and detained briefly at the Gulin County Detention Center.
His next arrest was on January 7, 2010, after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. The detention center guards beat and verbally abused him, as well as slapped him in the face, upon finding he did the Falun Gong exercises. He was later sentenced to four years in the Wumaping Prison by the Gulin County Court.
Because Mr. Luo refused to renounce Falun Gong, he was sent to the strict management team in the 7th ward. After an inmate found him doing the Falun Gong exercises, he kicked his legs and caused them to become bruised. For the next ten months, the guards cuffed both his hands and feet to metal rings on the ground during the day, and then locked him in the bed at night, leaving him unable to move at all. During the torture, he was given very little food with each meal. He was released on January 7, 2014.
Mr. Luo was arrested two more times the following year, on March 25 and April 26, 2015. His home was ransacked the first time and he was detained for two days after the second arrest.
