(Minghui.org) Fifteen Falun Gong practitioners in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, were arrested on May 10, 2021, for their faith in Falun Gong. Fourteen of them remain detained incommunicado.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Except for Ms. Zhu Qiuling, who was released after two weeks in the Huangdai Lockup, the 14 other practitioners are being held in a secret detention facility in Changshu City, about 40 miles from Suzhou.
The 14 practitioners are: Ms. Dong Wanyu, Mr. Ji Yong and his wife Ms. Pan Ning, Ms. Cui Ping, Ms. Mei Hongjuan, Ms. Li Shoujie, Ms. Wu Xiaoming, Ms. Yuan Huifen, Ms. Zhao Haibo, Ms. Zhu Ying, Mr. Chang Zheng, Ms. Han Guixiang, Ms. Ji Cuiping, and Wen (gender and last name unknown).
Most of the arrests took place between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. None of the arresting police officers were in uniform. Many of them revealed that they were just carrying out orders from their superiors. Some said they had been monitoring the practitioners for up to seven months and had taken a lot of photos and videos of them. Several said that, if the practitioners signed a statement to renounce Falun Gong, they would be released.
Early on May 10, seven plainclothes officers broke into Ms. Ji’s home. One of them waved a piece of paper that he claimed was a search warrant and put it away before her husband could read it. Although none of the officers showed their police IDs, it was later confirmed that they were from the Baiyangwang Police Station and the Suzhou 610 Office, an extralegal agency created specifically to persecute Falun Gong, that conducted the arrest.
Because Ms. Ji wasn’t home when the police broke, they restrained her husband and son and waited for her. When she returned at 9 a.m., the police arrested her in front of her husband and son. They also confiscated five of her Falun Gong books, a printer, and several bags of printing paper.
A few days later, Baiyangwan Police Station officers told Ms. Ji’s husband to bring her some clothes. He called them several times to ask about her, but no one answered. The police later deceived her husband into signing a document but didn’t let him see what it said. They promised him they would release her if he did. But after he signed it, the police stopped responding to him.
Ms. Ji’s husband called police officer Wang, who was in charge of her case, again on May 29 and asked him where Ms. Ji was being detained. Wang said it was useless to talk to him, that he couldn’t tell him anything. “Quite a few people were there to arrest your wife, not just me,” he said.
Wang claimed that they did inform him where his wife was being detained, either by phone or by letter. Ms. Ji’s husband denied having received any such information. When he warned Wang not to harm his wife, Wang threatened to arrest him, too.
When Ms. Ji’s husband later went to the police station and demanded his wife’s release, the police beat him and didn’t let him file a complaint.
Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province: 13 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested in One Day
Perpetrators’ Contact Information:
Baiyangwan Police Station: +86-512-65333627Wang (王), police officer: +86-13913125333