On January 25, policemen from the Domestic Security Team of Jidong County Police Department, Heilongjiang Province, burst into the home of Mr. Zhang Minghui. Disregarding the safety of the older people and a baby, who was just a couple of months old, they grabbed personal property and took Mr. Zhang away to the police station.
Mr. Zhang Minghui, 36 years old, was a middle school teacher from Yonghe Town, Jidong County. He started practicing Falun Gong in 1995.
On January 25, 2008, at about 7:00 a.m., National Security Team personnel from Jidong County Police Department and other police officers went to the home of a practitioner with the last name Mu. They were unable to arrest Mu, so they instead went to Zhang Minghui's house and knocked on his back door. Mr. Zhang's mother opened the door to four men. They identified themselves as police officers and claimed, "We want information about Falun Gong from Zhang Minghui."
After they saw Mr. Zhang in the home, they said to him, "Hand over your Falun Gong materials."
He clarified the truth to them, but the police once again demanded that he hand over any Falun Gong materials. One policeman twisted Mr. Zhang's arm and the other two pushed him to the ground and handcuffed him. Mr. Zhang's wife saw her husband being humiliated and beaten by the police and tried to help him, but the police officers stopped her. His wife shouted for help and their sister-in-law, who lived in the same area, soon arrived. The policemen ordered her to take the baby away.
Zhang Minghui's wife saw the police handcuff her husband and then they turned on her. She tried to protect herself but she was pushed down to the floor, dragged to the kitchen, and badly beaten. The policemen made phone calls 20 minutes later, and more than ten policemen arrived. They slapped Mr. Zhang's wife, making her lips bleed.
After that, the policemen jimmied the window of the bedroom and searched the room. The took away the following items: two copies of Zhuan Falun and three other Falun Gong books, a VCD player, a laminator, a binding machine, a paper-cutting machine, two notebook computers, one desktop computer, three ink cartridges, four cell phones (Mr. Zhang had fixed them for somebody else), some printing paper, over 100 spring couplets, a tool bag that contained over 100 DVDs, a bank savings card that had 4,500 yuan that Zhang Minghui's sister had left in his house, and other goods.
The police took Zhang Minghui to the National Security Team of the county police department and cruelly tortured him. The next day, somebody saw that Mr. Zhang hands were so swollen due to the torture that he could not tie his pants up.
On January 26, as a result of police threats and harassment, Zhang Minghui's wife and her eight-month-old son left home and became homeless.