In late February 2009, eight Falun Gong practitioners and members of their families were arrested by officers of the Harbin City Police Department, the Nangang District Police Department, and the Hexing Road Police Station in Harbin City. Three of the practitioners are still being detained. The police have refused to release them or to permit relatives or friends to visit them. Mr. Wei Liangyue, a lawyer and the husband of practitioner Ms. Du Yongjing, was also arrested. Mr. Wei had provided legal representation for Falun Gong practitioners, for which he had been threatened by agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
On the morning of February 28th, 2009, in the residential area of the Investment Professional School in Nangang District, Harbin Cty, Heilongjiang Province, practitioner Mr. Su Zhigang was hosting a gathering with some practitioner friends at his home. They suddenly heard deafening noises as police broke the lock and forcibly entered Mr. Su's home. They shackled the young men and brutally beat Ms. Du Yongjing. They took routine photos of the house before ransacking it and seizing Mr. Su's possessions, including 5,000 yuan1 in cash and his new car.
Police arrested Mr. Su, Ms. Du, Mr. Shi Yong, Mr. Du Xuejun, Mr. Li Xu, Mr. Wuge, and Ms. Du's husband, Mr. Wei, and held them in the Nangang District Detention Centre in Harbin City. On March 20th, they released most of the practitioners, but Mr. Su, Ms. Du, and Mr. Wei remain in custody.
After the arrest, the police did not inform the family members or workplace of the people they had arrested. As a result, the practitioners' families and co-workers had no idea where they were.
Ms. Du, 38, is employed at the headquarters of the Tianma International Travel Corporation in Heilongjiang Province. She is a manager in charge of international travel between China and Eastern Europe as well as domestic travel in China. When the general manager learned that Ms. Du had been absent for several days without explanation, he sent people to look for her, but they were unable to find her. Over ten days later, he learned from her family members that she had been arrested. Ms. Du's arrest left her department in a state of chaos. Service for foreign travellers was seriously impacted and the corporation suffered economic loss. The general manager stayed in touch with police, hoping to resolve the problem quickly.
Mr. Wei graduated from Jilin University with a degree in law. He is a Kuomintang Party (1) member and a high-ranking lawyer. He started his law practice in 1988 and is the director of the Jiaodian Law Firm in Heilongjiang Province.
Since 2008, at great personal risk, Mr. Wei has been defending Falun Gong practitioners who are persecuted by the CCP. He has presented their defence on the basis of the law and the facts, and he has been widely praised by his clients and their families.
The police, the courts, and the 610 Office2 in Harbin City have warned Mr. Wei on numerous occasions not to provide legal representation for Falun Gong practitioners. In addition, police conducted a secret investigation of Mr. Wei and confiscated his computer's hard disk, which contained the defence strategies for his Falun Gong clients.
The Nangang District Police Department, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province:
Chief: 86-451-87664112
Hexing Road Police Station, Nangang District:
Mr. Ma Liang, Chief: 86-451-86306288, 86-451-86318390, 86-451-87664288
(1) Kuomintang Party ruled China before the CCP took over.
Note
1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
2. "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/2009/3/30/198023.html
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