In the early morning of April 7, 2004, practitioner Lu Jiyun from Dongfeng Village, Laicheng District, Laiwu City, Shandong Province and practitioner Liu Qiumei of Laiwu City Commercial Industry Bureau were arrested by the police on patrol duty when they were distributing truth-clarification materials. Both practitioners were sent to the Laiwu City Public Security Bureau. They are currently being detained in the Laiwu City Detention Center. On April 8, the police also searched their homes.

Practitioner Wang Junsheng was an employee of the Sintering Plant of Laiwu Steel Manufacture Corporation. In October 2002, Mr. Wang was arrested by the police in Laiwu City. He received a 10-year prison term to be served at the Jinan Prison in Shandong Province. Wang Junsheng has traveled to Beijing twice to appeal for Falun Gong. He has suffereded from various tortures because of his steadfastness in practicing Falun Gong. In May 2000, he was taken to the brainwashing session held in the plant's office building by staff from the plant's security section. He has gone on a hunger strike to protest the attempted brainwashing. He lost consciousness a few times and suffered a heart attack during his hunger strike. After 34 days of being on the hunger strike, Wang Junsheng was sent home when his breathing became weak and labored. In September 2000, Mr. Wang was dismissed from his job at the sintering plant.

Practitioner Ms. Lu Xiufeng from Guan County, Shandong Province has suffered brutal beatings, verbal abuse and force-feeding in the First Women's Forced Labor Camp of Shandong Province. On cold winter days, she was locked up in the freezing storeroom and tortured. She is presently emaciated. Practitioner Li Jianmei from Jinan City, Shandong Province continued to practice Falun Gong while in the First Women's Labor Camp. Therefore, she was bound to a chair with her hands and legs shackled, and was not allowed to sleep. She has suffered brutal beatings and verbal abuse. When Ms. Li went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, she was tortured through force-feeding and has been locked up in a confinement cell for about three months.

After the persecution began on July 20, 1999, practitioner Liu Meirong of Donggang City, Liaoning Province has suffered detention, brainwashing attempts and financial penalties amounting to several thousand yuan (1). Her home has been searched several times. In March 2000, after having her home searched again, she was taken to Masanjia Labor Camp in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. She has suffered inhuman torture and her forced labor camp term has been extended an additional three months, to be served at Mashanjia Labor Camp. After Ms. Liu was released, she was forced to leave home in order to avoid further harassment and arrest, and she has had to move from place to place for more than half a year. In April 2002, the second day of her return home, the police rushed into her family's vegetable greenhouse, beat Ms. Liu into unconsciousness and then arrested her. She was sentenced to a 3-year term at the Women's Prison Section of Dabei Prison in Shenyang City.

On March 5, 2004, personnel from the "610 Office"(2) of Beipiao City, Liaoning Province arrested practitioner Yang Jingzhi. She was sent to Liangshuihe Detention Center. In late March 2004, she was sentenced to a forced labor camp. Ms. Yang was sent for the third time to the Masanjia Labor Camp. During her first time in this labor camp, she was given drugs that damaged her central nervous system. As a result, she has become mentally confused. She was at Masanjia for about 11 months. The second time she was incarcerated there, Ms. Yang was confined in a small cell four times, for a total of 56 days. She has also been subjected to "strict surveillance" for approximately 200 days. Her forced labor camp term was extended by approximately seven months.

Practitioner Li Na, female, was living in Donggang City, Liaoning Province. Since she was sentenced to a prison term in October of 2003 at the Shenyang Women's Prison, all information about her status is being withheld from her family members. On March 22, 2004, Li Na's family members went to the Shenyang Women's Prison, requesting to meet with Li Na. The police refused their request.

In February 2004, the police in the Ninth Section of Harbin Women's Prison in Heilongjiang Province ordered cellmates to beat Falun Gong practitioners, and practitioner Jiang Minshan's feet became infected as a result. Vicious cellmates tightly tied practitioner Cai Mi so that her body was at a 90-degree angle. They then handcuffed and brutally beat her hands. Both of her hands were severely injured. A few practitioners went on hunger strikes to protest the torture. They all have suffered from force-feedings.

Practitioner Peng Xinfang, female, is from Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province. After she learned Falun Dafa, the severe swelling of her body and other serious illnesses disappeared. In 1999, she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and to clarify the truth. She was arrested by officers from the Peng County Police Station and detained for a month. Ms. Peng was sentenced to two years in a forced labor camp and sent to Nanmushi Women's Forced Labor Camp in Zizhong County, Sichuan Province. She suffered from all kinds of inhuman tortures at that labor camp, including being shocked with electric batons, beatings with a leather whip, being kicked with leather boots, confinement in a small cell, being locked up in a water dungeon, having soiled sanitary napkins stuffed in her mouth, being hung up by the handcuffs, and being tied to a tree with rope. She was also forced to perform military-style exercises under the burning sun for extended periods of time, including squatting and up and down movements for more than a thousand repetitions.

Practitioner Yan Baofen, female, is from Qinghuangtao City, Shandong Province. Before practicing Falun Gong, she suffered from serious diseases, including breast cancer. After she learned Falun Dafa in 1995, she returned to full health. Since July 20, 1999 when Jiang's regime began its persecution of Falun Gong, Yan Baofen has been detained four times. As a result, her weight dropped by about 45-65 pounds and her health deteriorated severely. During her detention, Ms. Yan suffered brutal beatings by the police, and her eyes were injured so severely that even now she is unable to see clearly through her right eye.

Zhu Lin, female, is a practitioner from Nongang County, Jilin Province. During her detention, a few policemen, including Xu Shaolin, used cigarettes to burn her body, from her breasts down to her stomach. Her body was severely injured and the skin was pockmarked with the burns. The police verbally abused and behaved obscenely in front of female practitioner Ji Zhengli.

(1) Chinese currency; the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 yuan.

(2) The "610 Office" is a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches.