(Minghui.org) A 61-year-old resident of Wangdu County, Hebei Province, her daughter, and son-in-law are facing indictment for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Yu Shikun’s ordeal was triggered by the arrests of her daughter, Ms. Liu Meili, and her son-in-law Mr. An Chaoxu, both Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. An works in Beijing. Ms. Liu still lives in their hometown in Wangdu County but visits him from time to time. During their latest reunion in Beijing, they were both arrested on April 25, 2024, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials in Mentougou District.
The arresting officers from the Dayu Police Station and its supervising agency, the Mentougou District Domestic Security Division in Beijing, reached out to their counterparts in Wangdu County and its two neighboring counties for information about the young couple. None of the three counties provided anything that could be used to incriminate them. The Beijing police then pressured Ms. Liu into framing her own mother by promising to release her as soon as she revealed who supplied the materials that she and her husband distributed.
With Ms. Liu’s “confession,” the local Jiacun Town Police Station raided Ms. Yu’s home on June 11, 2024, but did not arrest her. When she went to visit her son in nearby Baoding City, Hebei Province the next day, officers from the Mentougou District Police Department followed her there. Together with their counterparts from the Wusi Road Police Station in Baoding City, the Beijing police raided Ms. Yu’s son’s home.
About four officers restrained and videotaped the mother and the son, while others searched the place. The police did not allow the mother and the son to examine what was seized or provide a list of confiscated items.
The police interrogated Ms. Yu and her son separately at the Wusi Road Police Station. Ms. Yu was transferred to Beijing and put under criminal detention at around 7 p.m. Her son was released that night. Upon returning home, he realized that his work computer, three cell phones, and four external hard drives were gone. He requested the return of the confiscated items, but the police refused. As a software engineer, he struggled to do his job with so much information stored in the confiscated computer.
The Mentougou District Police Department officers returned to raid Ms. Yu’s home again on June 13. They forced her husband to sign a blank piece of paper.
Ms. Yu’s husband submitted a request to the Mentougou District Police Department to not issue a formal arrest warrant against her. He said that Falun Gong cured his wife’s migraines and turned her into a more considerate and pleasant person. She no longer fought with his father and sister. The couple’s son also vouched for Ms. Yu’s character and said she often taught him and his sister to be considerate of others and to never take advantage of anyone. She got along well with neighbors and never hesitated to lend a helping hand.
Prosecutor Jiang Tao of the Mentougou District Procuratorate still issued an arrest warrant against Ms. Yu, as her family found out on July 17. Jiang accused her of posing a danger to society after other Falun Gong practitioners called him or mailed him letters urging him to release her.
Ms. Yu, Ms. Liu and Mr. An are all held at the Mentougou District Detention Center in Beijing. Prosecutor Jiang returned their cases to the police in September 2024, citing insufficient evidence. To collect information against the trio, the police from the Mentougou District Police Department went to the village near Wangdu County on October 8, asking the villagers if they saw the practitioners distributing Falun Gong materials. The locals also reported spotting three police cars from Beijing parked in the village for four consecutive nights. The police submitted the practitioners’ cases to the procuratorate again on October 12.
Related Reports:
Hebei Woman Arrested After Daughter and Son-in-law Detained for Their Shared Faith in Falun Gong
Copyright © 2024 Minghui.org. All rights reserved.
