Examples of How the Police "Arrest" Falun Gong Practitioners in Wuhan City, Hubei Province

On the afternoon of June 22nd, Mr. Peng visited his mother and brother at 30 Baofeng Street, Qiaokou District in Wuhan City. He left his bicycle outside and went up to the fifth floor, where his mother lived. After a while, on his way down, Mr. Peng saw that two taxis had parked around his bike. While he was opening the lock, six thugs suddenly thronged around him and the taxis. They abducted Mr. Peng and pushed him into a car.

Those thugs' unruly actions struck the neighbours speechless. The car was driven toward the Qiaokou Police Station. In fact, these "gangsters" were policemen from the Qiaokou National Security Team and had planned to arrest Mr. Peng's brother, Peng Weidong, but abducted him by mistake.

When Mr. Peng's mother heard the noise, she went downstairs. Two big thugs went up the stairs, grasped the 74-year-old lady on both sides of her arms and put her in another car. Zhou Desheng, the leader, asked someone for the old lady's house key. Peng's mother was then sent to Qiaokou District Etou Brainwashing Centre, which secretly imprisons Falun Gong practitioners in Qiaokou District. She was detained from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.

The policemen rushed to the fifth floor after getting the house key and broke into Peng's home to search it. In an attempt to arrest Peng, they stayed at his home until 1 p.m.

After this incident, Peng's mother was badly shaken up and recalled, "They were just like bandits. I have high blood pressure and cerebral infarction. I need to take my medicine on time, but I was detained for half the day." The terrified lady is now afraid of strangers. However, in order to arrest Peng, the policemen still continue to watch his family and have tapped their phone.

Peng graduated from a university and used to work at the Wuhan Cigarette Factory. Because he practised Falun Gong, Peng was fired and detained several times. He was also sentenced to two years of forced labour. Peng was subjected to all kinds of torture while he was detained at the Etou Brainwashing Centre in March 2003. He was unable to eat anything for about 40 days and became emaciated. Police from the Qiaokou District and the Secretary of the Political and Judiciary Committee had Peng's relatives carry him out to avoid responsibility.

Today, Peng Weidong has been forced to leave home to avoid further persecution.

A law-abiding citizen is being forced to live in exile, just because he persisted in his belief in the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance." Peng's case is only the tip of the iceberg of the persecution and torture that hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to. This persecution is happening every day in China. From the end of last month to the beginning of this month, more than ten Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested in Wuhan City.

While arresting Peng's mother and brother, the police officers in the Qiaokou National Security Team did not provide any legal documents nor police identification. They drove civilian cars and did not wear police uniforms. After seeing Peng's brother return home, they could have gone to Peng's home and provided legal documents to arrest him, but instead they waited downstairs in an attempt to abduct him. They knowingly performed a criminal act and violated the law. Passersby thought it was a private dispute and did not dare to interfere in the matter. Obviously, this crime had been well planned. The following examples are similar cases that have happened in this city.

Example 1: On March 21st, Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Weijie, who was living in the Jiangan District, disappeared on his way to work. His relatives spent over 20 days searching for him in government departments and called the Mayor's public number. Eventually, they were informed that Zhang had been arrested by the Wuhan Municipal Public Security Bureau. His relatives asked to visit Zhang, but instead they were threatened. Zhang is still being detained, and the various governmental departments are covering up for each other.

Example 2: In March 2004, Jin Zhiping, who was the chief of the Qiaokou Police Precinct office, led other officials to secretly arrest Falun Gong practitioners Huang Zhao and Liu Ning at their home and search it. Huang Zhao was tortured to death within 24 hours at the Qiaokou Police Precinct office. The police blocked all information about this. Even Huang's family was not informed. Liu Ning escaped from the police office and told her parents that she had been arrested. At that time, none of them were informed about Ms. Huang's death. Her father immediately went to see Jin Zhiping at the police precinct office and asked for her. Jin was astonished: "How do you know Huang is here?" Jin then deceived her father by saying that she was fine. Actually, she had passed away days earlier. After two weeks, the police could no longer cover up the case. Finally, they informed Ms. Huang's family that she had died, but lied and said that she had committed suicide.