(Minghui.org) Guangshan County Procuratorate returned a case against two local Falun Gong practitioners to Guangshan County Police Department in late July 2017, citing insufficient evidence to move forward with prosecution.
Mr. Jian Xuefu and Mr. He Yuanlang remain detained following their arrest four months ago. The two men were targeted because they refuse to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
Arrests
The arrests of Mr. Jian and Mr. He followed that of two other local practitioners, Mr. Zeng Zhaobin and Mr. Li Jiazhi, on the same day.
Mr. Zeng was pulled over on March 22, 2017, by more than ten officers, including Zhou Xinchun (head of Guangshan County Domestic Security Office), Zhou’s deputy Fu Qiang, and Xiong Tianyang from Zishui Police Station.
The police took Mr. Zeng back to his home, where they saw Mr. Jian, Mr. He, and Mr. Li Jiazhi (also a Falun Gong practitioner), who had been invited to dinner at Mr. Zeng’s home and were waiting outside.
Zhou ordered Mr. Zeng’s three dinner guests to stay and confiscated their cell phones, as well as that of Mr. Zeng.
Zhou instructed his officers to ransack Mr. Zeng’s home without a search warrant before proceeding to do the same to Mr. Jian’s home.
The four practitioners were first taken to Zishui Police Station and transferred to Guangshan County Lockup later that night. They were not shown or given any detention paperwork.
Mr. Zeng’s wife was working, and his child was attending a boarding school when police ransacked their home. There was also nobody at Mr. Jian’s home when police went to search it. As officers never informed the four practitioners’ families of their arrest, the families did not find out what happened until March 25, when Mr. Jian’s sister needed to talk to him but could not reach him.
Police Threaten Family and Fabricate Evidence
Mr. Jian’s sister and the other three practitioners’ families went to seek the practitioners’ release on March 25 but were threatened.
Zhou yelled at them, “Do you also practice Falun Gong? I’ll arrest all of you if you don’t leave now!” Officer Fu Qiang pushed them out.
Zhou later used software to fabricate photos in his attempt to frame the practitioners. He even ordered the fake photos broadcast on local cable TV.
Zhou also pressured Mr. Zeng’s wife to identify “her husband” from a grainy surveillance video clip. Even though Mr. Zeng was never present at said location as alleged by Zhou, Mr. Zeng’s wife was forced to say a man in the video was her husband and signed her “testimony.”
Zhou then submitted the case against Mr. Zeng and the other practitioners to the local procuratorate.
Fight for Justice
Mr. Jian filed a complaint against Zhou and Shen Lizhi, a section chief in the local appeals office, with the local procuratorate on April 21. He accused both men of dereliction of duty and demanded they be prosecuted.
Mr. Jian’s and the other practitioners’ families also kept using various means to communicate with police and officials at the procuratorate, urging them to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners and to dismiss the case.
The procuratorate returned the case to police in late July.
2 Released, 2 Remain Detained
Mr. Li was released on April 6, though it is unclear where he is on bail or had his case dismissed.
Mr. Zeng was beaten by police and had bruises all over his body. He could not straighten his back and had trouble talking. Police released him on bail on May 21.
Mr. Jian and Mr. He are still detained, even after the procuratorate returned their case.
