Older Practitioner Mr. Zhang Qingshan from Changping District, Beijing Imprisoned for Four Months by 610 Office

Name: Zhang Qingshan
Gender: Male
Age: 57
Address: Nankou Town, Changping District, Beijing
Occupation: Former worker at Beijing Thermos Bottle Factory
Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 5th, 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Liuchun Detention Centre
City: Beijing

Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, fired from workplace, home ransacked

On September 5th, 2010, Mr. Zhang Qingshan was arrested by personnel from the local 610 Office [an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong] and officers from the police station, and then taken to the Liuchun Detention Centre. His home was ransacked, and his current whereabouts are unknown. Mr. Zhang's wife and relatives visited the local police department, police station and the detention centre several times, requesting to see him. Their requests have been denied.

Mr. Zhang started practising Falun Gong in April 1998. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong, he was fired from his factory job since he persisted in his belief in Falun Gong. Soon after, he was arrested by 610 Office personnel and sentenced to one year of “re-education” through forced labour. During that period of imprisonment, guards goaded him into committing wrongdoing that led to his being detained for another three years. After his release in July 2004, 610 Office personnel monitored his home regularly, and continued to harass him and his family.

In July 2005, over a dozen officers from the Changling Police Station in Beijing and Nankou Town broke into Mr. Zhang’s home and took him to a brainwashing centre. After he was brutally tortured, both mentally and physically, for three months, he still insisted on practising Falun Gong. He was then sentenced to two years and six months of forced labour.

Mr. Zhang was released from the labour camp in April 2008. 610 Office personnel and local police officer Qin Yuanyuan from the Nankou Town Police Station (phone: 8613601198330) continued to harass him at his home.

Mr. Zhang was arrested on the morning of September 5th, 2010 by local 610 Office personnel, along with officers from the police station, while he was discussing the facts about Falun Gong with people. At around 10:00 a.m., Qin Yuanyuan and agents from the 610 Office tricked Mr. Zhang’s wife into opening her door by saying that they were checking on household registration documents. They broke into and searched Mr. Zhang’s home. They also attempted to detain Mr. Zhang’s wife, but failed. Mrs. Zhang also refused to sign a detention notice for him. Ten minutes later, a 610 Office official and a public security officer took Mr. Zhang away in handcuffs. They left Mr. Zhang’s home at 7:00 p.m. and confiscated many of his family belongings. His whereabouts are unknown.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/1/1/234380.html