(Minghui.org) Mr. Zhang Mintao was seized in front of his wife and daughter right outside his apartment building in Chaoyang District, Beijing, on March 27, 2015. The family was getting ready to go out that evening when two cars stopped and flanked them.
The arresting officers included four plainclothes agents from Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, and a few uniformed agents from Beijing. Without showing identification, they snatched the 40-year-old architect and took him to Hepingjie Police Station.
Mr. Zhang's wife followed the officers to the police station, and demanded his release. The police told her, “You husband did something in Taizhou and was caught on video.”
Mr. Zhang was reported to authorities while on a business trip to Taizhou in late 2014. His alleged “crime” was talking to people about Falun Gong, a spiritual practice being persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party.
Mr. Zhang was sent to Taizhou the next day, and is being held at Taizhou Detention Center.
With Mr. Zhang's arrest, his 70-year-old mother and 3-year-old daughter are now left to fend for themselves, as Mr. Zhang’s wife works in a different city.
Mr. Zhang Mintao’s family
Mr. Zhang’s mother and daughter
Prior to this arrest, Mr. Zhang once spent four years in prison and two and a half years in a forced labor camp for refusing to give up his belief in Falun Gong. He was subjected to various forms of torture while detained. He was once locked in solitary confinement and forced to sit on a small bench for extended periods of time at Qianjin Prison.
Responsible Parties:Taizhou Detention Center: +86-576-89230999Zhang Liming (张利明), headWang Weiji (王卫继), deputy headBeijing Hepingjie Police Substation: +86-10-84284803Hou Mincheng (侯明成), chief: +86-13882111100
