Police Brutality Suspected in Death of Elderly Dafa Practitioner Ms. Lu Tianyun of Hubei Province

Dafa practitioner Ms. Lu Tianyun from Xiangyang County, Hubei Province went missing from a square in Xiangyang County on November 18th 2003. A day later, a witness said that he'd seen the police arrest an elderly lady who was practising Falun Gong in the square the day before. Later, police claimed that they'd found the body of a woman in the pool of the square on November 19th and it was immediately cremated as an unidentified body.

Among the articles the police admitted to finding on Lu Tianyun were some Dafa leaflets exposing the persecution, indicating that the police were aware that Lu Tianyuan was a Falun Gong practitioner. On the basis of this evidence, it's impossible that the police had nothing to do with Lu Tianyun's death.

Ms. Lu Tianyun, a sixty-five-year-old Dafa practitioner was a retired employee of the Industrial Commercial Bank of Xiangyang County, Xiangfan City, Hubei Province. She was a veteran practitioner; she'd been "illegally arrested" and the local police had ransacked her home in May 2001.

After 3 p.m. on November 18th 2003, Lu Tianyun called a fellow practitioner and made an appointment to meet her at 7 o'clock in Dayuan Square. They both promised they wouldn't leave the square until they saw each other. At seven o'clock that evening, the practitioner arrived and kept the appointment, but she didn't see Lu Tianyun. After waiting for quite some time she started walking in the direction of Ms. Lu's home, hoping to meet her. She went some distance without meeting Ms. Lu, so she returned to the square and continued to wait for her. She waited until just before 8 o'clock before she decided Ms. Lu probably wasn't coming, and went home.

Ten days later Lu Tianyun's husband called the practitioner and told her that Lu Tianyun left home just after 6 p.m. on November 18th. She didn't return, so her family had searched everywhere for her. They learned that Lu Tianyun had called the other Dafa practitioner from the post office, so they asked her about it. The practitioner told them that she had waited for Ms. Lu that day but had given up, and suggested they check with the police station.

According to Lu Tianyun's husband, although he was worried, he didn't report his wife missing to the police immediately, thinking she would show up at home. When he finally did report his wife missing to the police, their computer records confirmed that a woman's body was found in the pool of the square on November 19th. Since no one had claimed the body, the police sent it directly for cremation. The officers at the police substation showed Lu Tianyun's husband the personal effects found on the body, including the house keys, Falun Gong materials and money, and he recognised that they were his wife's.

The day after Lu Tianyun went missing, a man told another Dafa practitioner that he'd seen the police apprehend a woman who practised Falun Gong on November 18th in front of the Fangzi supermarket. They dragged her to a police car and took her away. As the Dafa practitioner didn't know Lu Tianyun, although he asked around, he wasn't able to learn the identity of the practitioner who was arrested. After the Spring Festival of 2004, this Dafa practitioner inadvertently happened upon a funeral in the courtyard of the Industrial Commercial Bank of Xiangyang County. After asking a few questions he realised that the time, location, and age matched, and that Lu Tianyun was the woman he'd been told about. As such the local policemen can no longer deny their involvement in Lu Tianyun's death.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/9/27/111327.html