(Minghui.org) Seven Falun Gong practitioners, including Ms. Xu Runyan, Ms. Tan Xiuxia, Ms. Zhang Xiaochun, Ms. Xue Yuying, Ms. Tian Xiaomei, Ms. Wang Guixiang, and Ms. Huo Peilan, were arrested as they walked out of practitioner Ms. Duan Wenhua's home in the Jinfeng District of Ningxia Autonomous Region, where they were studying Falun Gong books, on November 23, 2016. The police ransacked Ms. Xu’s and Ms. Duan's home.
Plainclothes police followed the practitioners for several days. After a street cleaner reported seeing several Falun Gong posters along nearby streets, the police examined footage from monitoring cameras and were able to follow the practitioners to Ms. Duan's home.
After being arrested the practitioners were taken to the Changchengzhonglu Police Station and interrogated for 24 hours. Ms. Tan and Ms. Xu were beaten. One guard violently lifted and pulled on Ms. Xu's handcuffs to torture her, causing intense pain and swelling of her arms.
Ms. Xu, Ms. Tan, and Ms. Zhang were then taken to the Yinchuan City Detention Center where they are still being held. Ms. Wang and Ms. Tian were held for ten days. While detained in the detention center, Ms. Wang's blood pressure rose suddenly and drastically, and she became nauseous and dizzy. She was rushed to a hospital and later released. Ms. Xue and Ms. Huo were released.
Agents from the Changchengzhonglu Police Station and the Jinfeng Domestic Security Division carried out the arrest.
Practitioners' Information
Ms. Zhang Xiaochun, 55, is a deputy chief pediatrician and vice president of Longde County Hospital and also the vice chair of the Longde County political assembly.
She was arrested in 2009 and detained because she practices Falun Gong. She was taken to the Yinchuan Detention Center for 27 days, where she was forced to perform slave labor for more than ten hours every day. She was arrested again in 2011 and sentenced to three years in prison, where she was badly tortured. She was also fired from her job.
Ms. Tan Xiuxia, also 55, was twice detained in the Ningxia Women's Forced Labor Camp, where she endured three years of torture and forced labor. She was sentenced in 2005 and sent to the Yinchuan Women's Prison for four years.
Ms. Xu Runyan, Xue Yuying, Tian Xiaomei, Wang Guixiang, and Duan Wenhua are all in their 60s. Ms. Huo Peilan is 75.
