(Minghui.org) Two Baoding City residents were issued formal arrest warrants for talking to people about the Chinese communist regime’s persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They now face indictments for their faith. The lawyer for one of them has been working to have his arrest warrant quashed.
Mr. Zhao Lanchi and Ms. Wang Yanru went to the local Shenzhuang Village (in Shiqiao Township) on January 2, 2018, to distribute Falun Gong materials. They were stopped by village official Shen Xiwang, who called in police to arrest them.
Chief Liu Wenxing of Shiqiao Township Police Station soon arrived to take the two Falun Gong practitioners to Baoding City Detention Center.
The families of Mr. Zhao and Ms. Wang visited Shiqiao Township Police Station four times to request their release, to no avail. The families received the two practitioners’ detention notice a few days later and their formal arrest warrants on February 9.
Mr. Zhao’s family hired a lawyer from Beijing to defend his constitutional right to freedom of belief, as no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong. The lawyer met with him at the detention center on February 28 before visiting Shiqiao Township Police Station in the afternoon to file a bail request. Chief Liu promised to look into the bail request after Mr. Zhao’s daughter explained how her father became healthy by practicing Falun Gong and how he caused no harm to anyone.
Mr. Zhao’s daughter and lawyer visited the local Qingyuan District Procuratorate the next day. They requested that Mr. Zhao’s arrest warrant be quashed, and section chief Meng Xianbang referred them to Baoding City Procuratorate.
A staff member at the Baoding City Procuratorate couldn’t find Mr. Zhao’s case in their system and referred his lawyer and daughter back to Qingyuan District Procuratorate.
A different section chief at the procuratorate received the lawyer this time. The two had known each other from the past when the lawyer represented other Falun Gong practitioners. As soon as the section chief learned it was again a Falun Gong case, he called in seven bailiffs to threaten the lawyer. The lawyer refused to show his law license as requested and asked to see a judge.
Mr. Zhao’s daughter managed to calm the section chief down. The lawyer also softened his tone and said to the section chief, “Falun Gong practitioners are very peaceful and cause no harm. Why are you so upset?”
The section chief promised to talk in a civil manner from that point on.
Mr. Zhao remains detained and so does Ms. Wang, whose lawyer met with her on March 6.
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