(Minghui.org) A teacher in Gaozhou City, Guangdong Province, is facing prosecution for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Seven officers went to Mr. Yu Tao’s home on August 12, 2021. He wasn’t there, so the police ordered his son, a high school freshman, to call him. When Mr. Yu returned, the police arrested him, claiming that he “undermined social order.” They said that they would release him the next day after a brief interrogation.
Instead of releasing him as promised, the police took Mr. Yu to the Shigu Lockup to serve a 15-day detention. When his family went to the lockup to pick him up on August 28, they were told that Mr. Yu had been taken to the Dajing Police Station. There, the police ordered Mr. Yu to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong. When he refused to comply, the police took him to the Gaozhou City Detention Center and had him criminally detained. He was formally arrested on September 10, 2021.
During the process, the police didn’t give his family any of the required documents, such as a search warrant or detention notice. The family frequented the Gaozhu City Domestic Security Office to seek his release but to no avail.
On October 22, 2021, three days after the police submitted Mr. Yu’s case to the Gaozhou City Procuratorate, the prosecutor transferred his case to the Maonan District Procuratorate, which has been designated to handle most of the Falun Gong cases in the region.
The Maonan District Procuratorate returned Mr. Yu’s case to the police on November 22, 2021, and again on January 1, 2022, citing insufficient evidence. Instead of dropping the case, the police submitted it two more times, on December 17, 2021, and February 15, 2022.
Prosecutor Yu Huadan indicted Mr. Yu on March 16, 2022, and moved his case to the Maonan District Court. Mr. Yu’s family hired two lawyers to represent him and they visited him at the Gaozhou City Detention Center on April 25.
Mr. Yu taught at the Dajing Town No.1 Middle School for 18 years. Because he didn’t renounce Falun Gong, he was demoted to the Tiantangcun Elementary School. Following his most recent arrest, his wife, Ms. Liang Wenyan, was left in a dire situation. In addition to caring for their two children on her own, she worked three jobs to pay the family’s mortgage, car loan, and other expenses. The police took one of her work computers when they arrested Mr. Yu, causing her to lose one of her jobs.
Related report:
Police Refuse to Release Guangdong Man After Procuratorate Returns His Case Twice
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