Twelve Practitioners from Xiangtan City Arrested in October 2012

Twelve Falun Gong practitioners from Xiangtan City, Hunan Province were arrested in October 2012. Local 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) agents, police officers, and government staff participated in the arrests.

Under the direction of Xiangtan City 610 Office head Tang Yong, local police frenziedly arrested Falun Gong practitioners on October 15th-29th, 2012.

We have learned that the twelve arrested practitioners included Mr. Zhang Guiyun and his wife Huang Meihua from Shatan Village; Luo Yinping from Shitang Town who worked part time in a factory in the Yuhu District, Xiangtan City; Wang Qingsheng, retired employee at the Bar Plant of Xiangtan Iron and Steel Company; Ms. Zhang Xinmin, retired employee at the Jiangnan Machinery Factory; Ms. Huang Duohong, a stationery shop owner in the Yuhu District who has lived away from home to avoid the persecution; Ms. Xiong Chunxia, a farmer from Shuangma Town; Liu Heqing, Xiangtan County Bearing Factory technical staff; Luo Xiangjiang from Shitang Town who was just released from illegal imprisonment; Ms. Li Mengjun, an elderly lady living in the Shizixiang Community, Dongping Town; Peng Yonggan from the Yuhu District, and a female practitioner surnamed Tang from Xiangxiang City.

Among them, Mr. Wang Qingsheng and Mr. Luo Yinping were covertly sent to Laodaohe Law Training Centre in Changsha City (Hunan Province Brainwashing Centre) on October 17th. Mr. Wang was refused admission because of his poor physical health. However, he was sent to the Wujia Garden Brainwashing Centre in Xiangtan City the next day.

Ms. Huang Duohong was arrested out of town and covertly transferred from Changsha City to the Xiangtan City Detention Centre on October 29th. Other practitioners were held in the Wujia Garden (Xiangtan Meteorological Station) Brainwashing Centre.

In addition, 59-year-old Ms. Li Mengjun was released from the Wujia Garden Brainwashing Centre on November 15th, but was taken to the Xiangtan County Detention Centre the next day.

It was learned that Xiangtan City 610 Office agents claimed they were afraid there would be turmoil around the time of the Party's Eighteenth Congress. They use everything and anything as an excuse to further harass practitioners. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had issued lists of names of Falun Gong practitioners, and distributed it to police stations, neighbourhood committees, factories, and mines of city, county, and district levels since mid-October, ordering them to monitor and track the practitioners on the list. They also instigated and enticed people to frame Falun Gong practitioners. In some places, one could be rewarded about 3,000 yuan¹ for each practitioner framed. Some workplaces instructed staff members to harass practitioners at home, take photos, and track the practitioners.

The following is an account of the arrest of the couple Mr. Zhang Guiyun and Ms. Huang Meihua:

Mr. Zhang Guiyun and Ms. Huang Meihua live in Shatan Village, Xiangshui Township in the Jiuhua District. Eight plainclothes police officers suddenly broke into their home on the evening of October 15th, 2012. The perpetrators did not present any documents, but rushed in yelling, “Come with us to study for a few days!”

Mr. Zhang and his wife are honest and kind farmers who make a living by selling fruit. Confronted with the persecution, they firmly negated the evildoers and refused to cooperate. Several dozen villagers came over, condemned the police officers' arrest of the couple, and tried to stop them from taking the couple away.

Liu Liang, the Jiuhua District Consolidated Office newly-appointed head, called for more police agents, and attempted to forcibly take the couple into custody. Mr. Zhang's son tried to stop the police from taking away his parents. The police grabbed his neck and slammed his head against a wall, and did not release him until he nearly suffocated. About seven police then ganged up to ruthlessly hit him until his face was swollen and bruised, and covered in blood. These perpetrators proceeded to rush up to the second floor and push Mr. Zhang down the stairs while brutally beating him. The police then shoved the couple into a police vehicle. When an upright neighbour condemned the officers' bad deeds, an officer immediately beat her. The woman's son witnessed everything, became angry, and asked the police, “Why do you beat my mother?” The police officer said, “I will beat you, too!”

The police officer then raised his arm and hit the son's head with a flashlight with such force that the his head bled, and he became dizzy.

The evildoing officers' violence enraged many villagers. More than one hundred people blocked the police vehicle. They demanded that the police send the injured practitioners and their relatives to the Xiangtan City Central Hospital for treatment. The police had no choice but to compensate the upright woman's son whose head they had injured, 3,000 yuan for his medical expenses, before they fled the scene. But Mr. Zhang, his wife, and their son received no compensation for the injuries they sustained as a result of the police brutality. Instead, the couple was taken to the Wujia Garden Brainwashing Centre to undergo forcible brainwashing.

Ms. Huang Meihua sustained internal injuries from the beatings, accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and dizziness. The 610 Office agents released her from the brainwashing centre the next day. Mr. Zhang Guiyun held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. He was released on the ninth day of his hunger strike.

Individuals involved in the persecution:
Liu Liang, Jiuhua District Consolidated Office head: +86-13875210909
Xiangtan 610 Office: +86-731-58583197
Wang Yu, 610 Office agent, is persecuting Falun Gong practitioners at the Wujia Garden Brainwashing Centre in Xiangtan City

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.