Photography Studio Owner Arrested for His Faith, Interrogated in Metal Chair for Three Days

(Minghui.org) The owner of a photography studio was chained to a metal chair and interrogated for three days without sleep after he was arrested for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong.

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

Mr. Ni Jieming has been running the Baoma Photo Studio since 1991 in Huangdai Town, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. In late May 2022, several students came to his studio for graduation photos. He gave a few copies of magazines with information about Falun Gong to their parents and was reported to the police.

As soon as Mr. Ni returned home from work at 9:00 p.m. on June 1, 2022, five officers who had been waiting for him barged in. Without a search warrant, they ransacked his place and took away three computers, two printers, a photo of Falun Gong’s founder, and 41 Falun Gong books.

The police then took Mr. Ni to his studio and spent 40 minutes searching everywhere, especially the computers he used for his business. Two computers, another printer, and one more Falun Gong book were confiscated. After the raid, the police headed back to his home to search his place again.

Mr. Ni was taken to the Huangdai Town Police Station for interrogation at around 11:00 p.m. For the next three days, Mr. Ni was restrained to a metal chair and only unchained when he needed to use the restroom. The authorities took turns interrogating him, without allowing him to sleep for a moment.

Mr. Ni was held at a quarantine facility between June 4-27. He was taken to the Huangdai Town No.2 Detention Center on June 27 and has been held there since. His lawyer has submitted a legal opinion, urging the prosecutor not to indict him.

Prior to his latest ordeal, Mr. Ni was given an unknown labor camp term in 2000 for distributing Falun Gong materials. He was sentenced again to four years in 2006 for reading Falun Gong books.

Perpetrator’s contact information:

You Zhijun (尤智君), deputy head of Huangdai Town Police Station: [phone], [phone]