(Minghui.org) A resident of Linyi City, Shandong Province was arrested on April 21, 2020 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.
Because Mr. Jia Ruidong called his sister on the day of his arrest, the police also arrested his sister and her husband, and ransacked the couple's home, even though they don’t practice Falun Gong themselves.
Mr. Jia, 62, used to work at a sugar factory in Heilongjiang Province. He took up Falun Gong in 1998 while searching for therapies to cure his femoral head necrosis. Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance also helped him to eliminate his bad temper and become a more considerate person.
Mr. Jia was arrested on April 25, 1999, for attending the 10,000 people appeal in Beijing for the right to practice Falun Gong. After he was brought back to Heilongjiang, many of his colleagues went to visit him and sought his release. The police detained him for 40 days before releasing him.
Mr. Jia appealed for Falun Gong in Beijing again in January 2000. The detention center guards opened the window and took away his winter jacket when it was snowing outside, attempting to force him to renounce his faith by the freezing torture.
Because his supervisor at work attested to his personality and excellent work performance, and repeatedly requested that the police release him, Mr. Jia was released one month later.
Mr. Jia was arrested again in the summer of 2000 and held for seven days after the police found out that another local Falun Gong practitioner had visited him.
To avoid being harassed by the police, Mr. Jia moved back to his hometown in Shandong Province after he retired in 2001. The police in Heilongjiang harassed him two more times in Shandong in 2002, and during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.