(Minghui.org) A 71-year-old woman in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province was arrested on May 21, 2024 after a surveillance camera recorded her distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. Seven male officers forcibly collected her fingerprints despite her resistance.
This isn’t the first time that Ms. Li Mengjun has been targeted for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. She was previously harassed on August 10, 2006 and questioned about where she got her Falun Gong books. Ms. Li was arrested again on May 15, 2007, had her home ransacked, and she was taken to the Wujiahuayuan Brainwashing Center. She was held in isolation and monitored by five staff members, who forced her to watch anti-Falun Gong propaganda every day.
Ms. Li was taken to the Wujiahuayuan Brainwashing Center after another arrest on October 29, 2012. During her 15-day detention there, she experienced severe nausea and stomachache after every meal for three days. She suspected that the guards had laced her food with toxic drugs. One person assigned to monitor her was sympathetic and gave her different food to eat on the fourth day. Her symptoms went away that day. When the brainwashing session ended on November 15, 2012, instead of releasing her, the police took her to the Xiangtan County Lockup and held her for another 15 days. They forcibly collected blood samples and her palm prints, and also took photos of her. Her right arm was severely injured as a result.
Ms. Li currently lives with her son and first-grader granddaughter in a cheap rental home. Her son runs a small business and is in debt. She supports the family with her meager pension, while caring for her son and granddaughter.
Below is Ms. Li’s account of her latest arrest in May 2024.
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I distributed some Falun Gong materials on May 11, 2024 and someone reported me to the Yuntang Police Station.
At 7 a.m. on May 21, three plainclothes officers approached me when I went out to buy groceries. They were surnamed Liu, Wang, and Xu, respectively. One of them asked me, “Are you Li Mengjun?” I said yes. Then they demanded to talk to me at my home. I told them that I was going out grocery shopping and we could talk right there in the hallway. One of them said in a very demanding tone, “Go upstairs if I tell you to.” I didn’t want to confront them and took them to my home.
The officers called the female director of the Juhuatang Community Office and another police officer in charge of the area surnamed Xie. They showed me a search warrant and showed my son a video clip of me distributing Falun Gong materials and then began to search our home.
“Who are you? Why are you searching my home?” I asked.
“We are from the 610 Office and the Yuhu Police Station. You were reported for distributing Falun Gong materials,” was the reply. Officer Xie said that someone also reported me for distributing materials in my own neighborhood, but I never did.
They confiscated my tablet, two MP3 players, a set of Falun Gong books, three copies of Zhuan Falun (the main text of Falun Gong), and 17 booklets containing Falun Gong information. They also searched my closet and took away the clothes I wore while distributing the materials.
They took me to the place where I distributed the materials, forced me to stand next to the motorcycles (where I placed the materials) and photographed and videotaped me. Then they took me to the Majiahe Administrative Law Enforcement Center to prepare the paperwork about my case. I refused to sign the paperwork, no matter how they tried to deceive me.
Around 3 p.m., Yang Zhenxing of the Yuhu Police Station approved my ten-day detention. As I was very hungry by then, I ate the food they gave me. But after just one bite, I began to vomit violently. I had upset stomach for a long time after that.
Then the police tried to collect a blood sample, my fingerprints, footprints, temperature, and take photos of me. I strongly resisted. Seven officers came in and grabbed my arms and legs to collect my biometrics. By the time they finally finished, it was already 9 p.m. They called my son, daughter and son-in-law. They told my children that they needed to draw my blood. I refused to let them, but relented when they pressured my son to persuade me. They drew two small tubes of blood from me.
Around 11:40 p.m., they took me to the local lockup. As I refused to sign the paperwork, my son signed it on my behalf. I was detained for ten days and released on May 31.
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