Villagers Sign Petition for the Release of Liu Haitao

On the morning of September 25th, 2012, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Liu Haitao from Qingyuan County, Liaoning Province, was beaten and arrested by police officers who broke into his home. He has been detained ever since. Mr. Liu has been working to support his parents. His mother is mentally ill. When the police arrested him, his mother's mental illness became worse due to the shock. Fellow villagers were very sympathetic towards the family. They condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for persecuting kindhearted Falun Gong practitioners. The villagers signed and placed their fingerprints on a petition asking for “The Release Our Upstanding Young Man, Liu Haitao.”

The petition said: “We are friends, relatives, and neighbours of Liu Haitao. We all ask for the release of this upstanding young man. He is kind and simple. He does not smoke or drink alcohol, and he is very polite. He is the only member of his family who is working and providing an income for his family. When you arrested him, his elderly mother's mental illness became severe since she missed and worried about her son. Their family finances were already poor, now they are even worse. We strongly urge you to release this good young man, Liu Haitao.”

Witnesses to the arrest say, “The police are worse than gangsters”

At about 6 a.m. on September 25th as Liu Haitao's father stepped outside his door, about six people rushed into the yard. There were two white vans parked outside. They told his father, “Police. Here to check the situation.” Mr. Liu's father shouted to his son inside, “The police are here!” Liu Haitao came out in his underwear and asked, “Who are you looking for?” The police did not let him talk and pushed him inside the house.

When Mr. Liu's father shouted, “Help!” the police covered his mouth and told him he should “cooperate.” The police asked the father his name, age, and where he came from. They also asked for his residential record and ID. The police stopped Liu Haitao's parents from coming into the room to help their son.

Once again Liu Haitao asked, “Who are you looking for?” The police replied, “You.” Four officers held Liu Haitao on the ground and handcuffed his arms behind his back. They took him, dressed only in his underwear, to the police car. Then the police ransacked the family's house, making a big mess. Mr. Liu's father asked several times if his son could at least return to get dressed. After he got into the room, he saw blood on the floor; it was the blood of Liu Haitao after he was violently beaten by the police.

One of Liu Haitao's eyes was swollen after he was beaten. When the police beat him, his neighbors were woken up by the noise and came out to see what was happening. Mr. Liu's sister shouted, “Stop beating him! You're going to injure him!” But the police still did not stop.

The neighbours witnessed the Fushun Police breaking into the home without a warrant, arresting residents, and robbing them of their personal belongings. The neighbours said, “These police officers are more evil than the gangsters from the past.“

Liu Haitao's mother is mentally ill. When the police beat her son, she was so upset that she became even more withdrawn. She left when nobody was noticing. Mr. Liu's father ran out to look for her, and when he came back, the police had confiscated his motorcycle. The next day, Liu Haitao's sister went to the police department and got the motorcycle back.

The personal belongings taken by the police from Liu Haitao's home included: 50 yuan¹ from Liu Haitao's father's clothes and 60 yuan from his father's wallet, an unknown amount of cash from Liu Haitao, more than 30 Falun Gong books, multiple mobile phones, a box of printing paper, and two nylon bags of personal belongings.

Dozens of police officers beat, robbed, arrested, and threatened good people

That same day, September 25th, the Fushun City Police Department and the Qingyuan County Police Department arrested 18 practitioners; 17 of them were detained in the Fushun City Detention Station. Liu Yulan, who passed out after she was arrested, already had heart disease and hypertension and was taken to a hospital in an ambulance.

The police broke into practitioners' homes. After they asked for their names, the officers put the practitioners in handcuffs. They also threatened them, saying that if they tried to escape, they would be shot. The police arrested all the visitors in the practitioners' houses. If any of them were also practitioners, they were detained. Practitioners arrested include: Liu Liying, Jiang Yan, Wang Fajun, Jia Yunlong, Liu Haitao, Liu Weibin, Li Wensong, Liu Yulan, Li Hengliang, Hu Fengju, Zhang Guangying, Gai Yongjie, Liu Yingjie, Dong Zhuangnan, Fu Wenquan, Liu Shaoyi, and Li Fengxiang.

The Fushun Police Department participated in the F08 special project. Yang Wenju, the deputy director of the police department, led the team. Gao Bing was in charge of the planning. Before 3 a.m. the next day, all the participating officers gathered at the Fushun Police Station. They were required to carry pistols, gloves, tape, and a digital camera. They did not wear uniforms or use police cars. They planned to arrest 16 practitioners. About 45 officers participated in the arrests. Officers from the Qingyuan County Police Department, the Qingyuan Town Police Station, the Yaozhan Police Station also participated in the arrests. Actually, before this incident, the Qingyuan Police Department worked with the Fushun police to follow practitioners and tap their phones for a period of time.

Note

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