Hell in the Far East
A devotee of a banned spiritual movement who was deported from China has returned to his Isleworth home.
The Chinese authorities booted out Earl Rhodes, 39, and three other Britons who travelled to the Far East to protest about the treatment of Falun Gong members.
The Britons had been in Beijing for only three days when police arrived at their youth hostel demanding to search their room.
Mr Rhodes said: “When they found some books about Falun Gong they got really angry.
“Their faces turned red and they were shouting at each other in Chinese.”
They grabbed a female member of the party, Rosemary Cantz [Katzen], from Leicester, and tried to drag her downstairs.
“She was holding on to me and they were trying to pull her away,” said Mr Rhodes.
“One officer elbowed me in the chest and they pinned me to the bed as Rosemary was dragged away.”
When the group attempted to go after their friend they were also arrested.
They were all taken to separate rooms and subjected to aggressive questioning.
“We were interrogated for nine hours,” said Mr Rhodes, a BBC freelance cameraman.
“They were making all these veiled threats. It looked like they really wanted to nail us.
“The two interrogating me were bad cop, bad cop.”
After their ordeal the group, including Ms Cantz [Katzen], were all deported.
Since Falun Gong was outlawed by the Chinese government in 1999, it is alleged at least 350 members have been murdered and thousands more sent to labour camps.
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