(Minghui.org) Lawyers Tang Jitian, Jiang Tianyong, Zhang Junjie, and Wang Cheng went to the Jiansanjiang Brainwashing Center in Heilongjiang Province on March 20, 2014 seeking the release of their clients, Falun Gong practitioners who had been illegally detained for their beliefs. These lawyers were joined by 30 family members.
The four lawyers were taken to the police station on the morning of March 21. While uniformed policemen watched, plainclothes officers severely beat them. Zhang Junjie suffered three broken bones. When Zhang Junjie was released five days later, he said the other three lawyers, who were still being detained, had suffered much worse torture.
News of the arrests spread through the Internet. More lawyers, including those representing the four arrested attorneys, and other activists rushed to Jiansanjiang from other areas.
The international exposure of this crime frightened the Jiansanjiang police and authorities. As a result, officials from Beijing and Heilongjiang Province went to the Heilongjiang Land Reclamation Bureau and stayed in the bureau's official reception housing, the Midu Apartment Building, so they could personally oversee and orchestrate the persecution of these victims and control the damage from adverse publicity. They mobilized police from out of town to arrest the protestors and local Falun Gong practitioners.
The Heilongjiang Ministry of Public Security and those in Jiansanjiang who participated in the persecution had a meeting in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang on April 3, 2014. They falsely claimed that the Falun Gong practitioners in Jiamusi City caused all the trouble in Jiansanjiang. They then ordered another round of Internet surveillance and phone tapping in order to arrest more practitioners.
About a dozen policemen beat the husband of practitioner Ms. Liu Lijie, as he was coming home and unlocking his door at 2 p.m. on April 3. The police got inside and took away Ms. Liu and her husband. They were detained in the Xiangyang Police Department. The police ransacked their apartment and confiscated Ms. Liu's Falun Dafa materials, computer, computer accessories, and cash.
Parties involved in the persecution: Jiamusi City Police Department Xiangyang Police Department Baowei Police Station Domestic Security Division. Zou Qiang (邹强), director of the Xiangyang Police Department: +86-454-8668588, +86-13903688588(Cell) Li Dapeng (李大鹏), officer of the Baowei Police Station: +86-13846192666(Cell)