(Minghui.org) Six elderly Falun Gong practitioners from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, were arrested on October 18-19, 2018. Four of them were released after they failed to pass the physical tests for detention admission, and two were sent to the detention center, despite suffering from medical conditions.
Their arrests were related to the earlier arrests in June of seven other practitioners in their 60s and 70s, who were arrested for reading Falun Gong books together.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline persecuted by the communist regime since 1999.
The police first targeted Ms. Wang Lanmei on October 18. After Ms. Wang refused to open the door for the plainclothes officers, they hid in her apartment building and waited until she went out later that afternoon, when they arrested her and ransacked her home.
The police attempted to take Ms. Wang to Gujiao Detention Center. But her admission was rejected after the physician found her blood pressure to be 220/190 mmHg. She was released on October 20 and placed under house arrest.
The police went to the homes of five other practitioners the next evening. They pretended to be plumbers tasked with fixing leaking pipes and asked the practitioners to open the doors for them. They ransacked the practitioners' homes and didn't allow the practitioners to be present.
Ms. Yao Yuling's husband, who is in his seventies, with high blood pressure and heart problems, was terrified by the police raid.
The police also ransacked the home of Ms. He Aihua's son and interrogated her husband, both of whom do not practice Falun Gong.
Despite Ms. He and Ms. Chen Yuhua's blood pressure reaching 245 mmHg and 178/98 mmHg, and Ms. Chen suffering from heart and hearing problems, the police sent them to Gujiao Detention Center on October 22, where they have since been held.
Three other practitioners, including Ms. Yao, Ms. Zhang Fengying, and Ms. Ren Qinghua, were released home due to their physical conditions and put under house arrests.
