Calling for Immediate Release of Mr. Yu Chao and His Wife Ms. Zhu Tong

My brother, Yu Chao, graduated from the Department of Precision Instruments at Qinghua University in Beijing. He is a network engineer and worked for an international company in Beijing, and was paid a good salary. His wife, Zhu Tong, is also a graduate of Qinghua University and taught at the Microcomputer Institute at the same university. They worked hard and have a nice son, Huhu, who is very smart.

They are both Falun Gong practitioners. They live by the principles Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and are very kind people. Since the persecution started in July 1999, Ms. Zhu has been arrested for calling for justice for Falun Gong by unfurling a banner in Tiananmen Square. Their son was only two years old at the time. In August 2002, a few months after she was released, she was arrested again with my brother by six police officers, for speaking out on the Internet against the persecution of Falun Gong. My brother was beaten when he tried to resist being arrested. They were sentenced to nine and eleven years of imprisonment respectively. Huhu has been deprived of his parents' care.

The couple's apartment was ransacked and the entire building was surrounded by police. They were taken by agents from the domestic security bureau and the 610 Office¹ to the Beijing Legal Centre in Tuanhe, where they were brutally beaten. Mr. Yu was beaten with a rolled up magazine, and he subsequently held a hunger strike to protest the torture. They chained him to a board and didn't allow him to wash himself or use the toilet. For five months, he was tied to the board and had to soil his clothes. His muscles atrophied. The guards and the interrogator changed many times. My brother did not renounce his faith.

The persecution has been going on for nine years. The last time I saw my sister-in-law was before she was arrested in 1999. I have heard what she had endured from other people. She was deprived of sleep, closely monitored, and forbidden from talking to anyone. They have now been transferred and no one knows their whereabouts.

My nephew is now ten years old. For a long time, to torture my sister-in-law, they didn't allow her to see Huhu. He is being looked after by her parents, who are in their seventies. Not only do they have to raise their ten-year-old grandson, they are also worried about their daughter. The grandfather still has to work to support Huhu. Since he hasn't lived with his parents for such a long time, Huhu can barely remember them.

I demand the release of my brother and sister-in-law so they can be reunited with their child. They are innocent. All Falun Gong practitioners should be released.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/12/9/191314.html