(Minghui.org) The complaint filed by a Kunming City, Yunnan Province, resident against the police for illegally arresting and detaining her for her faith in Falun Gong is scheduled to be heard by the Xishan District Court on May 12, 2020.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.
Ms. Guo Lingna, 59, accused the officers from Yongchang Police Station of illegally arresting her, ransacking her home, and detaining her for 15 days, only because of her faith.
Ms. Guo detailed the police’s persecution of her in the complaint. She said as soon as she opened her door to take out the trash on September 22, 2019, an officer surnamed Xiao blocked her at the door. He also called three more officers for help.
The officers rushed into her apartment. While one officer held her in a chair in her living room, the other three searched each room for Falun Gong-related items. Many of her belongings, including Falun Gong books, keepsakes, and even a media player she used to play Falun Gong meditation music, were confiscated. Officer Xiao also took her cellphone and keys.
They took Ms. Guo to the Yongchang Police Station, where they collected a blood sample and her fingerprints against her will. One officer grabbed her hair, held her arms, and took photos of her. Her hands and arms were sprained. The bruises and pain didn’t subside for weeks.
Ms. Guo was sent to Kunming City Detention Center that evening and detained for 15 days. She released on October 7, 2019.
Ms. Guo said the police couldn’t provide a valid reason for her arrest and said only that it was an order from the Xishan District Domestic Security Division. They also violated the law by breaking into and ransacking her private residence. After the 15-day administrative detention period ended, the police didn’t provide any other documents, only a copy of the release certificate.
She hired a lawyer to represent her in protecting her constitutional right to freedom of belief. The lawyer filed her administrative complaint with the Xishan District Court against the Yongchang Police Station in late March 2020.
In the complaint, Ms. Guo demanded that her arrest and detention be categorized as an illegal act. She also demanded that the police pay her 3,883 yuan for financial losses and 50,000 yuan in punitive damages, as well as issue a formal apology.
The judge responded that the Yongchang Police Station did not have the authority to detain her and that she should list the Xishan District Police Department as the defendant. After the lawyer modified the complaint, the judge ordered that the complaint be split into two cases, one regarding her illegal detention and the other about her demand for compensation.
Ms. Guo’s lawyer re-filed the two cases at the judge’s request on April 20, 2020. The court informed the lawyer shortly afterward that the cases would be heard on May 12.
Ms. Guo said she has signed an agreement with the lawyer, specifying that, in the event that the police arrest her in retaliation, he would follow through with the cases to seek justice for her.
Ms. Guo has been repeatedly targeted in the past 21 years because she practices Falun Gong and raises awareness about the persecution. Her husband was forced to divorce her. The library where she worked withheld her salary, causing her financial difficulties.
Ms. Guo was sent to a forced labor camp for two years in 2007 for talking to a security officer about Falun Gong and sentenced to a three-year prison term in 2009 for distributing informational materials about her faith.
Only two years after being released, she was arrested again in 2014 and sentenced to four more years in Yunnan Province No. 2 Women’s Prison.
In the prison, she was forced to sit on a small stool all day long and denied family visits. The authorities had strict control over her daily life and denied many of her basic living rights, including taking showers, buying daily necessities, and using the restroom, attempting to force her to give up Falun Gong. They sometimes starved her and didn’t allow her to drink water. When her parents passed away, she wasn’t allowed to attend their funerals.