Mr. Du Zhenjun from Liaoning Province Forced to Leave Home Due to Arrest Threat

Name: Du Zhenjun
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
Address: Zhangxiang Town, Qinghe District, Tieling City, Liaoning Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 2008
Most recent place of detention: Benxi City Forced Labour Camp
City: Benxi
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Detention, home ransacked, electric shock, extortion, beatings
Key Persecutors: Li Meng, Zhao Ming, Liu Yongren, Yang Lei, Wang Guifen

Mr. Du Zhenjun, a practitioner in Tieling City, Liaoning Province, was released from jail on August 7th, 2009, and within a month, he was forced to leave his home. At the time, he had just completed the one-year labour camp sentence that had been forced on him in 2008. Police officers are now trying to track him down, and are monitoring the phones of his family members.

This is the second time he has had to flee his home. He has been arrested, extorted and sentenced to a forced labour camp at the hands of the Chinese Communist regime, simply because he holds a firm belief in the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Mr. Du became highly regarded by town's people after he began practising Falun Gong. He was an optimist who was willing to selflessly help others, even though his life was extremely hard. He had to earn a living to support his family while his wife was bedridden and relied on him for care.

On January 9th, 2006, Li Meng, then captain of the State Security Bureau Qinghe District Police Station, along with Yang Lei and Wang Guifen, arrested Mr. Du and ransacked his home. Li Meng took 173 yuan¹ from Mr. Du's pocket and put it into his own pocket without giving Mr. Du a receipt. Officers tortured him and shocked him with four high-voltage electric batons for five hours. Li Meng also asked the village chief to order Mr. Du's family to bring 10,000 yuan "to take care of business." The family then gave 10,000 yuan to Qie Zhiwu, the political commissar of the Qinghe District State Security Bureau Branch Office. They also gave another 10,000 yuan to an officer at the Tieling Public Security Bureau. After taking the extortion money which put his family into debt to pay, the authorities sentenced Mr. Du to three years probation.

Before the 2008 Olympics and after his wife passed away, he was stopped by police officers. The officers attempted to arrest him, but he got away and remained homeless to avoid arrest.

In October 2008, Mr. Du returned home to help bring in the harvest. Zhou Ming, who was then chief of Zhangxiang Town Police Station, arrested Mr. Du. Officer Liu Yongren beat him while covering his head with a black plastic bag. He was beaten until bruises covered his body, his nose was bleeding, and he was nearly suffocated. Since Mr. Du no longer had any valuables in his house, Liu took the only thing he could find, which was some new bedding. Police officers approached the family, making it clear that they had not formed a case against him but that they expected to be paid in bribe money before they would let him go. Mr. Du could not afford the seemingly endless extortion, so on New Year's Eve he was taken to Benxi Forced Labour Camp for a one-year term.

After his release from the labour camp on August 7th, 2009, he went to the police station to ask for the return of his bedding. Liu said, "Don't bother, it is gone." Liu also ordered him to report his activities to the station every two weeks. When Mr. Du disregarded these instructions, on August 30th, 2009, Li Meng, the police station chief of Zhangxiang Town, conveyed a message to Mr. Du, "Report to the police station tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m., otherwise an arrest is imminent." Mr. Du, therefore, was forced to leave home and go into hiding.

In mid-September, a friend called Mr. Du's daughter to help Mr. Du find a job. The daughter told the friend the whereabouts of Mr. Du. The next day, officers from the Qinghe District State Security Office appeared at that address looking for Mr. Du. Fortunately, they missed him. It is apparent that Mr. Du's daughter's phone was monitored by the police.

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://minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/9/28/209167.html