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Dabei Prison Threatens Charge of "Harboring Fugitives" if Families of Practitioners Released on Medical Bail Fail to Return the Practitioners to Prison
(Clearwisdom.net) The Dabei Prison Administration Bureau in Liaoning
Province recently issued orders instructing the family members of all Falun Gong
practitioners who had been released on bail for medical treatment to return the
practitioners to prison. Those family members who fail to comply will be sent to
prison on charges of "harboring fugitives." As a matter of fact, "release on bail for medical treatment" is not
what it appears. The so-called "release on bail for medical treatment"
is in reality extortion from family members of practitioners who have been
tortured to near death to pay large sums of money as "medical
expenses" in exchange for the practitioners' release. If the family members
cannot pay the required sums of money, there is no way for them to see their
loved ones. No matter how they plead, they are not allowed to see the
practitioners, not even the bodies when they die in certain cases. The prison
authorities would rather see the practitioners die in prison than release them
if they do not get the money they ask for. In order to rescue their beloved ones from the atrocities of the police at
the prison, the family members of practitioners oftentimes exhaust all of their
savings to satisfy the prison's demand; from at least tens of thousand Yuan1
to as much as several hundred thousand. Fearing their crimes might be exposed,
the Dabei Prison authorities require family members to sign an agreement as
"guarantors" according to their demands. They threaten the family
members with taking back the practitioners and legal actions to put the family
members in jail if they should breach. Recently the Dabei Prison has escalated the persecution of detained
practitioners, and included those who are released "on bail for medical
treatment." Now, the prison is ordering the family members to return the
practitioners to prison for a so-called "physical examination." Their
true intention is to arrest the practitioners again and continue the
persecution. They threaten to apply legal sanctions and put the family members
in jail for the crime of "harboring fugitives" if they do not bring
the practitioners back. Here, we urgently appeal to the international community to help stop the
persecution of practitioners by the Dabei Prison. At the same time, we hope that
family members of persecuted practitioners will cease to comply with and oblige
the evil persecution, work together with practitioners to resist the persecution
and protect their loved ones, and help collect and record detailed information
about the persecutors and the background information of the events that
transpire. (1) Yuan is the Chinese unit of currency. The average income of an urban
worker in China is around 500 Yuan. 2-23-2004 Posting date: 3/7/2004 |