Former Music Teacher Detained Despite Efforts to Seek Justice, Home Ransacked Twice in 15 Days

(Minghui.org) When Ms. He Yan was scheduled to be released after 15 days in detention, the police ransacked her home again before releasing her, despite having raided her place during her arrest.

Ms. He, a 47-year-old former music teacher in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, was arrested on March 2, 2023, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. The police called her parents to inform them of her 15-day administrative detention but warned them to not pick her up from the local lockup since the police would go get her on day 15.

On the morning of March 17, the police took Ms. He from the lockup to the Wujiashan Street Police Station even as other officers ransacked her home and confiscated the computer she bought not long before her arrest. The search warrant they presented didn’t have a signature. The police said they suspected her of sending articles to an overseas website and would search her computer for evidence. She was released around noon.

Ms. He’s arrest came despite her legal efforts over the past three months to overturn the police’s earlier decision to detain her.

Officer Wu Zhigang of the Wujiashan Street Police Station previously broke into Ms. He’s home on December 1, 2022, and took her to the police station to collect her personal information, including her fingerprints, palm prints, and height. The police gave her 15 days of administrative detention, but the lockup refused to accept her due to the pandemic. When they released her that evening, the police gave her a copy of the administrative ruling and said they would detain her at a later date.

Ms. He wrote to the police station on December 7, demanding a dismissal of her administrative detention. She pointed out that the police violated legal procedure in how they handled her case by presenting a summons and a search warrant without any signatures and refusing to provide a list of confiscated items or going through the items with her right after the home raid.

Ms. He said that her arrest, the raid on her home, and the 15-day administrative detention have caused tremendous mental distress to her and her parents. She maintained that she didn’t violate any law by practicing Falun Gong; that all the items confiscated from her were her personal, lawful possessions; and that there was no legal basis for the decision the police made to detain her.

The next day, she mailed an application for administrative reconsideration to the Dongxihu District Justice Bureau, which, according to the mail tracking system, was delivered a day later. She noted that she didn’t violate any law and there was no legal basis for the police to detain her. She also sent copies of her application for administrative reconsideration to the police and the district government.

In her continued effort to seek justice, she filed complaints against officer Wu Zhigang and Zhang Gen on December 11, 2022, with the Dongxihu District Procuratorate, accusing the police of trespassing in her private residence, infringing upon her right of religious belief, as well as abusing their power.

When she did not receive a response (concerning her application for administrative reconsideration) from the justice bureau within the 60-day window, she filed a lawsuit with the Dongxihu District Court on February 7, 2023, demanding the police drop the decision to detain her. The court refused to accept her case, saying it was beyond the scope of the cases they usually handle.

Ms. He returned to the courthouse the next day when the president of the court was hosting an open house. But the court staff members refused to accept her documents.

Ms. He mailed the lawsuit to the director of the court’s case-filing division on February 11, only to be arrested on March 2 at work and detained in the Wuhan No.1 Lockup for 15 days.

Prior to her latest ordeal, Ms. He has been repeatedly harassed and arrested over the past 24 years for upholding her faith. She was held in a brainwashing center several times. After serving a one-year forced labor camp term in 2002, the Wujiashan No.4 Middle School no longer allowed her to teach. She had to do office work instead despite the fact that she was very popular with the students.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Yin Xuan (殷璇), director of the case-filing division of Dongxihu District Court: [phone]Liu Taiping (刘太平), president of Wuhan City Intermediate Court: [phone]

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

Related report:

Music Teacher Demands Police to Dismiss Arbitrary Detention Decision for Her Faith in Falun Gong