(Minghui.org) A married couple in Xingning City, Guangdong Province were arrested on April 19, 2024 for their shared in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Li Zhuozhong developed a serious medical condition and is currently held in isolation in a hospital. He is forced to take drugs for tuberculosis and diabetes three times a day. His wife Ms. Liao Yuanqun is currently held in the Meizhou City Detention Center, and has not been allowed family visits or communication.

The Couple’s Arrests

Shortly past 8 a.m. on April 19, 2024, eight plainclothes officers, including Xing Zhengquan (the deputy head of the Xingning City Domestic Security Division) and Li (the chief of the Heshui Town Police Station), knocked on the couple’s door, demanding to talk to Mr. Li. As they failed to produce the proper paperwork, Mr. Li refused to open the door. The police pried open the lock and broke in. They raided the place, without providing a list of confiscated items.

According to the couple’s family, the police sawed open a side door and replaced the original lock. The front door was sealed. For a long time after their arrests, the police kept coming back to search the place. As the couple’s siblings also have partial ownership of the apartment, they protested to the police. Only then did the police agree not to come back and to allow the family to change the lock.

After the couple’s family confirmed their detention locations, they tried to deliver clothes to them but were turned away by the police, who also denied any visitation requests. The police deceived the couple’s family into believing that it would take a lengthy approval process for them to hire lawyers for the couple. As a result, the family didn’t hire lawyers for them immediately.

The couple only has one daughter, who had just landed a job after graduating from college. Over the past 25 years she has witnessed multiple arrests of her parents and grew up in fear. She had to stay with her relatives when both of her parents were detained. Following the couple’s latest arrest, the police kept pressing their relatives for the young woman’s phone number. They later called her and asked her whether her parents had contacts with other practitioners or even whether she had a boyfriend. She was terrified and lost weight quickly.

Lawyer’s Visits with the Husband

The family later hired lawyers for both Mr. Li and Ms. Liao. Mr. Li’s lawyer visited him on June 7 and July 12. Mr. Li said that after his arrest on April 19, the police took him to the police department and interrogated him twice. Then they took him to the Xingning City Hospital. As he was found to have tuberculosis, the local detention center refused to admit him. The police held him at the Meizhou City Addiction Treatment Center, also known as the Meizhou City Third People’s Hospital. He was locked in a room on the sixth floor and was the only person on the entire floor. 

It has now been over three months since Mr. Li was detained in the hospital. He had persisted in doing the Falun Gong exercises every day. The police interrogated him on three more occasions during this period.

The lawyer applied for bail release for Mr. Li. He said that there is no legal basis for the police to detain Mr. Li in the hospital and they should immediately release him.

The lawyer cited the following articles from the Criminal Procedure Law,

- Article 85 states: “After detention, the detainee shall be immediately sent to a detention center for no longer than 24 hours.”- Article 74 states: “The courts, procuratorates and public security organs may place criminal suspects and defendants who suffer from a serious illness and are unable to take care of themselves under residential surveillance.”- Article 66 states: “The courts, procuratorates and public security organs may, depending on the circumstances of the case, summon, release on bail or place criminal suspects and defendants under residential surveillance.”

The police refused his request.

Mr. Li’s family and the lawyer later went to the Xinginng City Police Department. They told Luo Dong, the head of the Xingning City Domestic Security Division, that Mr. Li’s mother had been hospitalized on July 10 due to complications of diabetes. The doctor had issued her a critical condition notice and transferred her to the intensive care unit. The family demanded that the police release Mr. Li to allow him to visit his mother. The police again refused the request.

Huang Yuping, a prosecutor for the Xingning City Procuratorate, later approved Mr. Li’s arrest. Mr. Li’s lawyer again submitted letters to Huang and Luo, demanding that they release Mr. Li on bail. He also filed a complaint against the police for illegally trespassing on his client’s private property and searching it. 

The lawyer later confirmed that the police are currently collecting evidence against Mr. Li and they would submit his case to the Meizhou City Procuratorate for the next step.

Lawyer’s Visits with the Wife

Ms. Liao Yuanqun’s lawyer visited her on June 6 and June 24. She told the lawyer that she was taken to the Xingning City Police Department after her arrest. She was detained there for two days and interrogated twice. She was later moved to the Meizhou City Detention Center and interrogated three more times there. She said she didn’t answer any of the police’s questions and she also persisted in doing the Falun Gong exercises in custody every day. 

As Ms. Liao wasn’t allowed to contact her family, they couldn’t make deposits for her to buy daily necessities in the detention center. She has relied on the help of other Falun Gong practitioners also detained there. 

The Couple’s Past Persecution

Mr. Li Zhuozhong is a former middle school teacher and Ms. Liao Yuanqun used to teach in a kindergarten. Because of holding fast to their faith since the onset of the persecution, they have been persecuted multiple times over the past 25 years. 

They were both arrested on May 9, 2003 and given one year of forced labor for having Falun Gong materials at home. Mr. Li’s term was extended by one month and he was released on June 8, 2004. 

Mr. Li was arrested again in early December 2006 while giving a class. He was given two years at the Sanshui Forced Labor Camp. 

Because the guards found Falun Gong lectures in his cell on January 25, 2008, they placed him in solitary confinement. When it began to rain days later on January 31, 2007 the guards forced him to strip to his underwear and stand in the rain. They also poured cold water on his neck and kicked him with leather boots. 

Later in the day, they took Mr. Li to the torture room and tied him to a tiger bench. The next day, while he was still tied on the tiger bench, the guards shocked him with electric batons on his head, nipples, abdomen and inner thighs. The torture lasted three days. His hands and feet had multiple wounds. His body was sore and covered with bruises, which didn’t go away for over two months. The guards attempted to extend the solitary confinement by three more days, but relented due to the upcoming Chinese New Year (February 7) and took him back to the regular cell on February 4.

Torture illustration: tiger bench

The torture of Mr. Li escalated in March 2007. He wasn’t allowed to take showers or go to bed until 2:30 a.m. The timing was further delayed to 4 a.m. in late March. The guards threatened to completely deprive him of sleep if he didn’t renounce Falun Gong. He held a hunger strike to protest. The guards promised that they wouldn’t further delay his bed time, so he began to eat again. Yet he still wasn’t allowed to take showers until 4 a.m.

In July, the guards took away Mr. Li’s mosquito net, didn’t allow him to go to bed until midnight, and barred him from buying daily necessities or extra food. He was held in isolation and monitored by the inmates around the clock. This strict management lasted until December 22, 2007. 

The guards later extended Mr. Li’s term by two months with the excuse that he had Falun Gong lectures in his possession, but without telling him. It wasn’t until December 20, 2008, two weeks past his scheduled release date, that they showed him the term extension notice after he strongly demanded to know what was going on. Mr. Li was eventually released on January 24, 2009, after serving an extra 48 days.

Related Report:

Meizhou City, Guangdong Province: 14 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested in Three Days