Five Falun Gong Practitioners Detained in Jingzhou City

(Minghui.org) Under the Chinese Constitution, practicing Falun Gong is legal and its practitioners should not be arrested, detained, or imprisoned.

Five practitioners from Jianli County, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, have been detained for more than 40 days. They are Li Dayao, He Cheng, Wang Shenggui, Li Lecheng, and Zhu Chunxin. They were arrested on September 20, 2017. Their homes were ransacked, and their personal belongings, including computers and printers, were confiscated.

The practitioners' families tried to contact the proper departments to secure their release but were unsuccessful. On October 31, they retained two lawyers, one for Mr. Li Dayao and another for Mr. He Cheng and Mr. Wang Shenggui. The lawyers filed the correct documents with the Jianli County Procuratorate on their clients' behalf.

The lawyer representing Mr. Li Dayao, who is 65 and retired, had to ask three times before being allowed to meet with his client. In the past, Mr. Li was detained in a forced labor camp for one year and imprisoned for three years after former dictator Jiang Zemin initiated the suppression of Falun Gong in 1999.

Another lawyer came to meet with Mr. Wang Shenggui and Mr. He Cheng in a detention center. Mr. Wang told the lawyer that he felt sick and passed out in the restroom.

The lawyer was not able to meet with Mr. He Cheng in the detention center. To find out where his client was, the lawyer visited the Jianli County Police Department, Rongcheng Police Station, local community neighborhood committee, and the Jianli County Political and Legal Affairs Committee. He finally learned that Mr. He had been detained in the Hubei Legal Education Center, which is believed to be the Banqiao Brainwashing Center.

Mr. Li Lecheng is also being held in Banqiao Brainwashing Center. It is not clear where Mr. Zhu Chunxin is detained.

Participants in the Persecution of the Five Practitioners:

Zheng Jiyuan (郑继元), captain, Jianli County Domestic Security Brigade: [phone]Hu Pingcheng (胡平成), director, Jianli County 610 Office: [phone]Li Daoping (李道平), Jianli County Political and Legal Affairs Committee: [phone]Wang Xiaoqiang (王小強), chief, Rongcheng Police Station: [phone]