Six Practitioners Arrested in Chenzhou City, Hunan Province

Six Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, on April 21st, 2009.

Shortly past 2:00 p.m. on April 21st, 2009, more than 20 people from the Chenzhou 610 Office¹, from the Chenzhou Domestic Security Division and its branch in the Beihu District, and agents from a local police station suddenly surrounded Ms. Liao Xiaohong's vendor booth in the Liuxian Market in Chenzhou City and took Ms. Liao Xiaohong, Mr. Shi Jiaoyu, and a visiting male practitioner away under duress. They snatched Mr. Shi's bag and found the key to his apartment, took the bag with them, and opened the door. The police took away everything, including a computer, a copier, a CD burner, and Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution. They also looted 74,000 yuan² in cash and a bank deposit book worth over 20,000 yuan.

Mr. Shi tried to walk out to the street but the police knocked him down. He shouted, "We are all good people. Falun Gong is good!" Only then did the onlookers know that the police were after Falun Gong practitioners, prompting one person to comment, "No wonder a while ago I saw suspicious people monitoring this apartment. We asked them what they were doing. They told us a businessman owed them one million yuan, so they were waiting for him to come back." The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using overt and covert tactics such as monitoring, shadowing, and telephone tapping to frame good people.

Mr. Li Xiangqian and Ms. Zeng Sifeng, husband and wife, run a hardware store on Yanquan Road. That same day, at about the same time, another group of officers ransacked their home and store before taking them away. The couple was arrested last year prior to the Olympics. Their family paid 20,000 yuan, a so-called "bail," to get them released. Many people suspected the police wanted to pocket the bail money, which was why they arrested the couple this time. Their store is located in a prominent place, and plain clothes police had been monitoring them for a long time.

Ms. Liao Xiaohong and Ms. Zeng Sifeng are currently in the Chenzhou Detention Centre. Mr. Shi Jiaoyu and Mr. Li Xiangqian were released that night after interrogation. The out-of-town male practitioner managed to escape that night.

It is confirmed that another practitioner, Ms. Guo Zhaoqing, was also arrested in Chenzhou that same day. She is from Yiyang City in Hunan Province and had been living away from home to avoid further persecution.

Chenzhou Domestic Security Division
Huang Xudong: 86-13365858036 (Mobile), 86-735-2898158
Xu Zhongli: 86-13055000948 (Mobile),, 86-735-2885779
Beihu District Security Division head, Bian Lichuan: 86-15973555559 (Mobile),

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.

2. "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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/5/3/200106.html