Seven Targeted in a Midnight Police Sweep Detained for Nearly Two Months

(Minghui.org) Seventeen Falun Gong practitioners in Shenze County, Hebei Province, were arrested in the middle of the night on January 11, 2022, for refusing to give up their faith. Seven of them are still being held.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Between midnight and 2 a.m. on January 11, 2022, the authorities in Shenze County dispatched an armed police force to round up local Falun Gong practitioners. The arrests of at least 17 practitioners have been confirmed.

According to officers who participated in the arrests, they received orders beforehand for an upcoming night operation but were given no details. The authorities confiscated all of their cellphones before revealing that they were going to arrest Falun Gong practitioners.

If the practitioners in multi-story houses refused to open the door, the police broke in. If the practitioners were in a single-story house, the officers didn’t even bother to knock—they just scaled their fence and broke in. The police searched the practitioners’ homes extensively, including storage rooms and closets. Their Falun Gong books, photos of Falun Gong’s founder, Falun Gong informational materials, computers, printers, and copy paper were taken away. The items confiscated from some practitioners filled up several cars.

They covered practitioners’ heads with black hoods and took them to a hotel in nearby Jinzhou City. The police interrogated them in separate rooms, keeping them in metal chairs and handcuffed and not letting them sleep. After the interrogation, they put the black hoods back on.

The police held the practitioners in the hotel until January 27, before transferring them elsewhere. It has been confirmed that He Hongyan, Liu Xiaomiao, Zhang Huixin, Liu Yuru, Jiao Yaqin, Ma Tongxin, and Du Guofang are being held in the Jinzhou City Detention Center. The situations of the other practitioners aren’t clear.

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Wang Jianfeng (王建峰), secretary, Shenze County: [phone], [phone]Li Lixin (李立新), head of the Shenze County Police Department: [phone], [phone], [phone], [phone]Li Yufei (李宇飞), officer, Shenze County Political and Legal Affairs Committee: [phone]Du Xuejun (杜学军), officer, Domestic Security Office: [phone]

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)

Related report:

Shenze County, Hebei Province: 17 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested Between Midnight and 2 a.m.