(Minghui.org) Residents in Malu Village, Benxi City, Liaoning Province were woken up by sirens at around 3 a.m. on September 18, 2019 to find that 12 police cars were there to arrest four women for their faith in Falun Gong.
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.
Ms. Meng Zhaoxia, Ms. Song Zhimin, Ms. Liu Shuqin, and Ms. Li Chunmei, all in their late 50s or 60s, had their homes turned upside and Falun Gong materials confiscated, before being pushed into police cars and taken away. They have been held at Chaibei Detention Center since.
The police later revealed to the practitioners’ families that they were targeted for mailing letters to the general public about Falun Gong. One of the letters was reported by a nurse in Jiangsu Province. Ordered by the Public Security Department in Liaoning Province, the local Benxi police monitored the practitioners for nearly six months before arresting them.
The police submitted the practitioners’ cases to Hengren County Procuratorate in October 2019. Although the prosecutor later returned the cases due to insufficient evidence, the police refused to release them.
Past Persecution of Ms. Meng Zhaoxia
Prior to her latest arrest, Ms. Meng has been targeted several times for her faith.
The police broke into her home on December 7, 2004 and confiscated her Falun Gong related items. One officer verbally abused and handcuffed her after she refused to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. The police extorted 3,000 yuan from her family and forced her family to sign the renouncing statement for her, before releasing her at around 9 p.m. that day.
The police ransacked her home and took away her Falun Gong books on June 29, 2008 again. She was detained at Xinbin County Detention Center for 23 days. Her family paid 6,000 yuan in bail and only got half of it back later on.
