(Minghui.org) A man in Pingxiang City and his 14 guests were arrested at one of his residences on June 2, 2017, while they were doing the exercises of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that is persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party.
This is not the first time that Mr. Yang Tingxian has been targeted for gathering with Falun Gong practitioners. Back on May 13, 2015, he and his then-nine-guests were arrested while reading Falun Gong books at his home. Police put him on the radar afterwards and struck again two years later.
Following the June 2 arrest, Mr. Yang and some of his guests were detained until June 23.
Arrested Without a Warrant
Around 15 Falun Gong practitioners were doing meditation exercises at the home where Mr. Yang was staying, which belonged to his parents before they passed away.
Most practitioners in the group were senior-aged, with the eldest being 91, and youngest around 50. There was also a practitioner from out of town who had brought her 8-month-old grandson with her.
The police entered the house, and Xie Jianbin, head of the Domestic Security Division, ordered practitioners to stop the meditation, without showing any search warrant or his ID.
Standing up for their constitutional rights, the group continued with the meditation, while a group of police video-taped them, searched the house and took away their Falun Gong books.
After completing the meditation, Ms. Wu asked the police to return her book, but they refused and said they would take her for questioning first. So far, they have not returned her book.
Du Hui, political instructor of the Domestic Security Division, took away over 20 Falun Gong books that belonged to Mr. Yang, as well as five photos of the founder of Falun Gong. When practitioners tried to persuade Du Hui not to commit wrongdoing, she refused to listen and said she didn't care about karmic retribution.
The police handcuffed practitioners and took them to the local police station for questioning.
Unlawful Interrogation and Detention
Again, without showing any warrant or ID, the police body-searched practitioners by force and confiscated their personal belongs, including cash, keys, mobile phones, books and etc.
Some of these personal belongings have not been returned to date.
The police took practitioners to an interrogation room one by one for questioning. The officers still refused to show their ID, while demanding that the practitioners cooperate with them.
They asked for their name, age, how long they had been practicing Falun Gong and so on.
They also asked for the names of their family members and their mobile phone numbers. When practitioners refused to tell them, they found the information on the Internet.
In the end, they asked practitioners to sign the written record of the interrogation. Practitioners refused to sign when they saw it was written that they were arrested for joining an “illegal cult organization,” since Falun Gong is not illegal, nor is it a cult.
The practitioner with a baby grandson needed to return home to feed the baby, but the police still kept them until 10 pm, when they finally allowed her husband to take their grandson home.
Around the same time, the police called the relatives of six practitioners in their 70s to have them picked up and taken home.
The other nine practitioners were taken to a detention center where they were forced to have their blood pressure taken and undergo blood tests, chest X-rays and ultrasounds.
Though Mr. Yang Tingxian’s blood pressure was up to 220, the police refused to let him go home.
The police unlawfully detained the practitioners for ten days for “illegal gathering.”
On the eighth day, the police transferred Mr. Yang Tingxian and another elderly practitioner, Mr. Zhang Wenlong, to Fenyi County Detention Center and did not release them until June 23.
Related Report:
Ten Arrested While Reading Falun Gong Books—Five Still in Detention
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