Case 1-11: Chinese Consulate in Milan Refused to Renew Passports
Country: Italy
Name: Jianhua Lan, male, 65, Engineer, Chinese
Guifen Zhang, female, 62, Engineer, Chinese
Location and date of incident: Milan, Italy; July 2001.
Description:
Mr. Lan and Ms. Zhang went to the Chinese Consulate in Milan to renew their passport on 13 November
2001, because they were to expire on 17 December 2001.
The embassy officials said that it would take one or two months because their situation was "special." Usually to renew a passport takes only one week. After more than 10 days, they called the consulate to check if the renewal had gone through. The answer received was "It's not available yet." As a result, they went to talk to the consul, Liang Haitao. He told them that they had to write a letter stating that they would "not damage the image of China" [implying that practicing Falun Gong, and appealing for justice for the detained practitioners in China was damaging the image of China]. Both Mr. Lan and Ms Zhang refused.
At the end of March, they received a phone call from the consulate saying they could collect their passports. However, after going to the consulate, the passports had not been renewed. The official at the consulate did not offer an explanation and was very angry. He shouted at them: "I'm not a member of Falun Gong."
The practitioners then asked to have a written statement about why they had refused to renew the passports. This was also denied and the consulate called the police to have them removed from the premises.
Source: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200211/8260.html
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
