Mafia-Style Henan Province Police Extort Money From Falun Gong Practitioner For His Peaceful Appeal

On June 19, 2000, thirteen Dafa practitioners from our county went to the Appeal Office of the State Department in Beijing to say that, "Falun Dafa is good," as well as to demand a legitimate practice environment, and to restore our Teacher's reputation. We practised the exercises on Tiananmen Square and were dragged by police into a police car. Inside the car, the policemen started to beat practitioners. Four to five practitioners were beaten; my eyes and nose were swollen from punching. Inside the police station, practitioners were beaten by a group of vicious police who kicked and shoved practitioners back and forth on the floor. It was an unbearable scene.

The local police station detained me for more than 130 days. The detention centre forced us to lie about our conditions to the inspector that came to check on us. We were forced to work long hours every day. After we were released, the Political and Security Section Chief illegally ordered us to pay a 6,000 Yuan [Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 Yuan] as a "fine." There were 5 practitioners, who were fined a total of 30,000 Yuan, without being given a receipt.

When I was illegally held in the detention centre, my work unit forced my family to give them 2,500 Yuan. They forcibly brainwashed my spouse for practising Falun Gong and forced her to pay them 2,000 Yuan. There were a total of seven practitioners there, who had to pay a total of 14,000 Yuan. This was in July, a critical time for us to be in the fields. Our crops were ruined after a month of forced neglect. Afterward, the authorities continued to frequently interfere with our lives.

When I returned to my work unit, the factory officials took money from me as well. I was fired because I practise Falun Gong. I was put under observation and given only 80 Yuan per month for living expenses. At the beginning of 2001, my workplace began operating a brainwashing centre. They tried to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their cultivation, allowed prison guards to swear at and torture us, and forced practitioners to write anti-Dafa material on the walls. They stopped our salaries and the prison guard forced us to pay him 30 Yuan.

The police harassed me numerous times for practising Falun Gong, and very often they ordered my work unit to watch over my family. During the Party's 16th Congress, an official from the factory incited a mentally ill person from the same factory in the same village to harass us. They spread rumours everywhere and severely disturbed my family's life.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/3/30/47404.html