(Minghui.org) Police in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, continue to hold two Falun Gong practitioners in detention, even though they have failed to resubmit their case within the one-month deadline for further investigation after it was returned to them due to insufficient evidence.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body discipline persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhang Kehui, in her 70s, and Ms. Liu Peiqin, 66, are currently detained at the Futian Detention Center. Both women have developed medical conditions due to the mental pressure imposed by six months of arbitrary detention.
Ms. Zhang is experiencing excessive fatigue and has no appetite. Ms. Liu is having unusually high blood pressure as well as symptoms of heart muscle inflammation and kidney swelling caused by urine build-up, a condition that disappeared after she began to practice Falun Gong in 2015 but which has now recurred since she was detained.
When both women rejected the medicine provided by the detention center, knowing that many Falun Gong practitioners have been fed with toxic or nerve-damaging drugs during detention, the guards forced them to sign a liability waiver, shirking responsibility for the practitioners' health.
Violent Arrests
Ms. Zhang was arrested on May 29, 2018 after a group of police broke into her son's home when they were taking a nap after lunch.
An officer pointed a gun at Ms. Zhang's son while he was lying in bed and threatened to kill him if he moved. Several other officers grabbed Ms. Zhang's neck, held her on the bed and handcuffed her. The officers ransacked her son's home and confiscated their cellphones and computers. Ms. Zhang was taken to the Futian Detention Center the next day.
It was reported that the police targeted her for passing out information and talking to people about Falun Gong.
Upon learning about Ms. Zhang's arrest, a close friend of hers, Ms. Liu Peiqin, went to the Tian'an Police Station to inquire about her case on May 30, but she was body-searched and arrested herself.
A dozen officers went to the home of Ms. Liu's daughter around 7:00 p.m. shortly after her arrest. The young woman, in her 20s, refused to open the door and demanded to see the police's IDs and search warrant.
Several officers went back to the police station and returned in 20 minutes with a search warrant, which didn't have any case information, but only the location to be searched.
Ms. Liu's daughter again questioned the legality of the search warrant and still refused to open the door. She also began to videotape the police as they demanded to come in.
After moments of standoff, the police forcibly broke into her home, snatched her cellphone and handcuffed her.
When the young woman resisted, an officer grabbed her hair and hit her head hard on the floor. She sustained bruises and swelling.
The police then took the young woman to the police station and restrained her on a tiger bench.
Both Ms. Liu and her daughter were interrogated until 3:00 a.m. When she saw that officer Sheng Wei had fabricated facts against her in the interrogation record, Ms. Liu refused to sign the record. She was later forced to sign it when another officer, Lin Qingming, threatened to detain her daughter if she didn't comply.
Detained for Their Faith
After her daughter was released a day later, Ms. Liu was transferred to the Futian Detention Center, where she was held in custody with Ms. Zhang.
Both women's arrests were approved in early July. The police submitted their cases to the Futian Procuratorate in August, which transferred them to the Nanshan Procuratorate at the end of September. The latter procuratorate returned the case to the police on November 2 due to insufficient evidence. By law, the police have one month to gather more evidence and resubmit the case. At the time of writing, the case hasn't been resubmitted yet.
Ms. Liu and Ms. Zhang are currently held at the Nanshan Detention Center, where they were transferred on September 25.
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