Police in Linjiang City, Jilin Province Arrest Numerous Falun Gong Practitioners, as well as Ransack Their Homes and Extort Money from Family Members

Beginning in 2008, officials from the Linjiang City Police Department and those from the Senlin Police Department in Linjiang City have continually harassed and arrested practitioners. Practitioner Chi Minbao has been continually persecuted at the hands of officials from the Linjiang City Police Department for many years. The police tried to arrest him again recently. Chi Minbao decided to live away from home to avoid further persecution. Furthermore, the police also threatened, extorted money and ransacked the residence of practitioners Jiang Ying and Jiang Mingli and confiscated their personal belongings.

Around February 26th, 2008, Yu Peiyou and officer Han from the Senlin Police Department and Yu Haitao from the Political and Judiciary Committee arrived at practitioner Chi Minbao's residence. Chi Minbao tried to prevent their acts and was pushed down to the ground. Later on, three policemen tried to take Chi Minbao away by force, but he managed to escape. That is why he chose to stay away from home, as stated above.

The morning of April 24th, 2008 policemen Geng Lidong, Liu Yunquan, Zhang Shujin, Zhang Zhongmin and Liu Rumin arrived at Ms. Jiang Ying's residence and harassed her with the pretence of checking the household registration. They confiscated Falun Gong materials, a television set, and took her to the police department. They tried to use threats and coercion to force her to write a guarantee statement promising not to practise Falun Gong any more. They also extorted five thousand yuan¹ from her family members and took the money without giving a receipt (policemen Wang Weixiang was the one who recorded this).

Senlin Police Department officials recently went to the residence of many practitioners to harass them. The morning of April 24, 2008, policemen Han, Chen Yugui and one other came to Ms. Jiang Mingli's residence to harass her. They took away the Falun Gong books and materials. They took her to the police department and detained her for a day. They interrogated her regarding the source of the materials and also made her husband come to the police department. They extorted three thousand "yuan" from her husband before releasing Ms Jiang Mingli. Her husband was forced to borrow five hundred yuan to pay the extortion. Police department personnel mentioned they are going to deduct their meal expenses from the amount he paid. In addition, they made him sign an agreement to pay the remaining two thousand five hundred yuan. They did not issue him a receipt for the money they received.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/5/17/178644.html