German Falun Gong Practitioners Back from Beijing

Frankfurt, February 15, 2002

Seven of the eight Germans who had been arrested during a peaceful appeal at Tiananmen Square on February 14, 2002, to protest the persecution of Falun Gong have arrived today at Rhein-Main Airport in Frankfurt. According to first reports by the Germans, the Chinese police officers this time had used unexpected gross force. The Chinese police officers robbed Mr. Bernhard Auernhammer from Munich of all his belongings, except for his clothing, beat him and deported him from Beijing, minus his shoes and without a coat in this cold winter weather. He had to board the plane in a pair of pants that had been torn by the police officers. The whereabouts of his belongings are uncertain. People already filed a declaration against the abuse with the Frankfurt Police Department while still at the airport. Annett Munter from the town of Oehringe had been beaten so brutally that she had severe swellings of the head and black-and-blue marks on her torso and arms and legs and had to undergo a medical examination at the airport.

Chinese police security officers repeatedly and groundlessly, and without restraint, beat Steffi Koerper from Heidelberg in and about the face. Her father, Hubert Koerper, was slammed to the ground by six policemen on Tiananmen Square, kicked and stepped on and beaten; it was indescribable and words fail to explain the scene.

The Chinese police officers stole Florian Akbar's (from Hamburg) complete photography equipment worth several thousand Euros as well as his personal luggage and cell phone while they body-searched him in the tunnel leading from the square to the police station. None of his belongings were returned to him before his departure from Beijing. After his arrival in Frankfurt he flew directly on to Hamburg where the local media already awaited him.

The whereabouts of Andre Huber from Loerrach/Baden (a city) are unclear. We have heard that he is still detained in Beijing and the German embassy is taking care of the matter.

After the brutal actions by the Chinese police officers and because of the total absence of observation of human rights against peaceful foreigners, the practitioners are immediately serving notice with the Foreign Office in Berlin, including a complaint of bodily harm and gross theft.

Practitioners from Frankfurt