Police of Mainland China Openly Intimidate and Persecute Family Members of Falun Gong Practitioners

(Clearwisdom.net July 10) Police arrested practitioners Li Yang and Fu Feng (alias) from Liaoning Province on the evening of May 12, 2003 while they were posting the words "Falun Dafa is good" in a park. Li Yang was knocked unconscious by several police officers and was handcuffed from the back. The police stole two cell phones, a pager, 700 Yuan* cash and a house key from Li Yang. Afterwards, without getting any search warrant and without the presence of Li Yang's family members, the police searched his home. They took a bed cover, 70 or more Dafa books, 600 truth-clarification brochures, 2000 flyers, 1400 truth-clarification VCDs, "Minghui Weekly," a CD burner and 3000-Yuan cash. Then the police detained the two Dafa practitioners for 15 days.

Fifteen days later, the two Dafa practitioners were surprisingly released with the approval of the detention center officials. The police wanted to entrap more Dafa practitioners. The two Dafa practitioners understood the policemen's trick and moved away from their homes after being released. The police's plot failed and they showed their real intention. Under the direction of the chief officer of the City "610 Office"** and secretary of Political and Judiciary Committee, the city mobilized a dozen police officers and vehicles from police department, procurator's office and detention center, and repeatedly harassed the children and relatives of the two practitioners, demanding to know where they were. After failing to get any information (their family members indeed did not know where they went), the police illegally detained one of the practitioner's daughter (a non-practitioner) at the end of June for more than 50 hours. Later the daughter's employer bailed her out. The police threatened, "If we cannot put the Falun Gong practitioners under arrest, we will not let their family members live a normal life and we will arrest all of the family members."

Police also adopted methods of secretly following, waiting in hiding, and asking for collaborators'*** assistance to arrest the Dafa practitioners. Up to the moment of the writing of this article, the area surrounding the houses of the Dafa practitioner was still under 24 hours surveillance. Among the relatives of the practitioners, two (non-practitioners) were also forced to stay away from their homes. A son-in-law (a non-practitioner) was arrested when he was shopping for vegetables in a food market . He was illegally detained for 8 days with a charge of "hiding a crime." The police even threatened to sentence him, trying to arrest Dafa practitioners by using their relatives as hostages.

*Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan.

**"610 Office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

***Collaborators are former Falun Gong practitioners who have turned against Dafa due to brainwashing and torture.

July 10, 2003

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