By Greg Rule

March 12, 2002

An Australian couple arrested in Beijing for supporting the outlawed Falun Gong movement today said they were pushed, kicked, threatened and strip searched by Chinese police during a 15-hour ordeal.

Jarrod Hall, 23, and his wife Emma Hall, 22, said they used wedding gift money for a two-day trip to China last week to unfurl a Falun Gong banner in Tiananmen Square in Beijing before being arrested, interrogated and expelled from the country yesterday.

Speaking outside the Chinese Consulate in Melbourne, they said hundreds of their fellow Falun Gong meditation practitioners in China were being killed by authorities.

"People are being put in prison and tortured," Mr Hall told reporters.

"They are being put in prison indefinitely with no trial just for standing up for those principles.

"Could you stand by and watch people being killed and tortured for doing something that you believe is good for you, is good for them and is good for everyone else on the planet?"

The arrest of the Halls came just days after 10 other Australians returned home after being expelled from China for also unfurling a Falun Gong banner in Tiananmen Square.

"We were kidnapped, that's how I see it," Mr Hall said. "If we didn't do what we were told, they would scream in our faces."

He said they were later taken to another building where they were questioned separately.

"I was thrown to the floor several times for not standing where I was told to stand and sitting in a meditation position which they didn't want me to sit in," he said.

Mrs Hall said her shoes were forcefully removed by police.

"In my interview, they basically strip searched me down to my underwear which I refused to cooperate with them so they had to get another male policeman in to help," she said.

China outlawed Falun Gong in 1999, declaring it an [Jiang Zemin regime's slanderous term omitted], a claim vigorously denied by the group which maintains it follows the principles of "Truth, Compassion, Forbearance".

Mr Hall said he and his wife were "totally helpless" at the hands of Chinese police.

"If they tell you to blink, you blink or they would start to threaten you and push you against the wall," he said.

"I was kicked in the groin at one stage and pushed up against the wall with someone's hand on my throat."

Mr Hall said some money was stolen from the couple.

The Halls said they would consider returning to China, but the move would be difficult, with authorities cancelling their visas.

http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2002/03/12/FFXAZ1QFHYC.html

Posting date: 3/13/2002
Original article date: 3/12/2002
Category: News & Media Reports

 Yearly Archive  Printer Version