Wuhan Police Arrest, Beat Eight Falun Gong Practitioners Studying at Home

Eight Wuhan residents were reading Falun Gong books in a private home when police broke into the apartment through a bathroom window and arrested them. Police also assaulted the practitioners while ransacking the apartment.

Officers tortured the Falun Gong practitioners at the police station in an attempt to force them to renounce their beliefs. Three of the practitioners are now hospitalized; the others are held in two detention centres.

Several officers from Qinduan Police Station in Hanyang District demanded to enter Mr. Kuang Xiaoming's (匡小明) apartment on January 26th, 2014, claiming to check his household registry. When Mr. Kuang refused to open the door, officers unsuccessfully tried to pry the door open. Police then cut off the iron bars on Mr. Kuang's bathroom window, through which one officer entered and opened the door.

Gui Yunfei (桂云飞), director of the Qinduan Police Station, began beating Mr. Xiao Shuwei (肖书唯). A prosecutor who broke in with the police claimed that he saw Mr. Xiao assault the officer first. Gui took Mr. Xiao to another room and repeatedly used a shoe to strike him in the face until it was red and swollen. The police began to ransack the apartment and search the practitioners without giving a reason.

All eight practitioners were taken to the police station. Mr. Xiao and Mr. Ma Xiangwen (马相文) were restrained in their chairs during the interrogation, during which Gui blasted pepper spray in Mr. Xiao's eyes, almost blinding him.

Ms. Zhou Hongjuan (周红娟) and Ms. Xia Meirong (夏美容) refused to give up their names. Officers chained them to a bench overnight and denied them food and toilet use, forcing Ms. Xia to relieve herself on the floor. Despite Ms. Zhou's experiencing a spike in blood sugar level and vomiting, officers continued interrogating the practitioners into the night.

Police took all eight practitioners to a hospital and forced them to have blood tests, ECG, ultrasound, and x-ray scans. The practitioners were then sent to the No. 1 and No. 2 Detention Centres in Wuhan. The identity of one practitioner remains unknown.

The No. 1 Detention Centre refused to accept Ms. Zhang Bing (张兵), Ms. Zhang Hong (张红) and Ms. Zhou because of their poor health. Instead of sending the three practitioners home, the Hanyang 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) ordered the police to take them to Ankang Hospital to continue the abuse.