(Minghui.org) A married couple were arrested a year and a half ago for refusing to renounce their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime. Originally from Heilongjiang Province, the couple had moved to Jilin Province.
Ms. Fan Liping died in custody the day after her arrest. The police provided no autopsy report or other evidence supporting their claim that “she tried to escape and jumped to her death.”
Her husband, Mr. Zhang Ge, has been under house arrest since 2014. Authorities have yet to give him an official report on the cause of his wife’s death on October 16, 2014.
Mr. Zhang Ge doubted the cause of his wife's death and asked that he be compensated for her suspicious death.
In response, the chief said, “Falun Gong has been labeled anti-revolutionary by the government, so there is no way we are going to compensate you.”
Mr. Zhang filed a legal complaint in August 2015, charging former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin with launching the persecution of Falun Gong that resulted in his wife's death and his continued house arrest.
The following is Mr. Zhang’s personal account of the ordeals that he and his wife went through since the persecution began in 1999.
I was addicted to smoking and gambling, but gave up both in May 1996 after I began to practice Falun Gong. My wife also joined me in the practice. She became a much more considerate person after that.
After the persecution began, my wife and I traveled to Beijing in late 2000, hoping to appeal for Falun Gong, to tell the government to stop the persecution. However, we were arrested and illegally detained.
The local police station made our parents pay them 2000 yuan as a “deposit” to prevent us from returning to Beijing.
Our workplace, the Harbin City Civil Aviation Bureau in Heilongjiang Province, planned to send us to a brainwashing center at the end of 2001. We had no choice but to leave our home and everything we owned to avoid further persecution. Both my wife and I were later fired from our jobs.
After losing our source of income, we moved to Changchun in Jilin Province, where I made a living driving a taxi.
We returned to Harbin in the summer of 2014 to renew our identification cards. We could not find full-time jobs without them. The local police department refused to issue us the new cards just because we were Falun Gong practitioners.
The office of Changchun City Police Department in charge of taxis called me on October 15, 2014 and said that one of my customers left something in my car. They asked me to go there to confirm.
Three plainclothes officers handcuffed me as soon as I entered the taxi office. They took my keys and cell phone, pushed me into a white car, and drove me to my apartment.
Six other officers were already outside our apartment when we arrived. They unlocked the door with my keys, arrested my wife, and took many of our personal belongings.
After taking us to Chengxi District Local Police Station, they interrogated us until well past midnight. They took my wife away first, and held me in Weizi Detention Center.
At around 7:00 pm on October 16, 2014, two guards cuffed my hands behind my back as they pushed me into an interrogation room. They asked me where I got the money to print Falun Gong materials, and threatened to harm my daughter if I did not answer them.
During the interrogation, one guard told me that my wife had died while trying to escape from the police vehicle. I asked to see her body. My request was ignored, as was my request to see my family.
They transferred me to Changchun City Second Detention Center.
The head of Changchun Domestic Security Division and three other policemen interrogated me again in December 2014. They pressed me to agree to a quick cremation of my wife’s body. I refused to comply, as I could not have her body cremated without knowing how she died.
I was transferred to Changchun Law Enforcement Center (a brainwashing facility) on May 8, 2015 and released a month later. I am currently under house arrest. The police investigation team has not provided any evidence showing how my wife died.
I have been detained numerous times and lost my wife and my freedom, all because I refused to renounce my faith in Falun Gong.
The primary perpetrator of the persecution, Jiang Zemin, should be held legally accountable for all the imprisonment, brutal torture, and deaths of Falun Gong practitioners.
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.
The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners in the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.
Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.
Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.
Related Report:Ms. Fan Liping Dies One Day Following Her Arrest