Neighbours Try to Bail Out Falun Gong Practitioner Arrested by Police

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Dong Lianzhu is a resident of Nanliutun, Tangshan City, Hebei Province. On the morning of June 9th, Mr. Dong was arrested by six to seven police officers from the Nanliutun Police Station. The police also took away his personal belongings, including a car, bank cards, a laptop, and a printer.

Mr. Dong enjoys a good reputation among the neighbours who tried to stop the police during the arrest. After that, they went to the police station on their own initiative intending to bail out Mr. Dong; however, the police rejected their request and detained Mr. Dong at the No. 2 Detention Centre of Tangshan.

As Mr. Dong is the only bread-winner at home, his arrest caused a difficult situation for the family. His older daughter is going to a university soon but doesn't have money to pay her tuition fees without her father's income. His younger daughter is only seven-years-old and suffers from asthma. The family spent 36,000 yuan¹ for the girl's treatment last year. Although she is getting better, her condition still demands care and financial resources. Mrs. Dong has been worrying about her family since the arrest of her husband.

The police told Mrs. Dong that they are not eligible for the government's low income security programme as other families whose bread-winners are imprisoned because Mr. Dong is a Falun Gong practitioner.

Mr. Dong's older brother, who is not a practitioner, has been visiting the police station everyday for updates on his brother's situation. The police tried to force Mr. Dong to sign an Arrest Statement stating he had violated the law by practising Falun Gong. He then asked the police to return his confiscated Falun Gong books,but they refused.

Note

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