bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Josephine Ma

Three US green-card holders who were detained in Shenzhen after a meeting of Falun Gong members are expected to be released this week.

 The trio, arrested on December 15, had been held at a detention centre in Shenzhen's Futian district, according to Chan Chun-shue, a Hong Kong Falun Gong member who was briefly held with the three.

 Mr Chan said yesterday he and another Falun Gong member from Hong Kong had wanted to visit the three last Wednesday but that their request was rejected by police.

 'Officials in the detention centre said even requests by US Consulate staff had been turned down,' he said.

 Mr Chan said he met Feng Lili, one of the detainees, in Hong Kong at a Falun Gong gathering on December 12, and invited her to visit his apartment in Futian when she was next visiting relatives on the mainland.

 About 30 Falun Gong members joined the group at his apartment.

 'One member said it was unsafe to have so many people and they all went home at around 10.30pm,' Mr Chan said.

 He said four policemen arrived at about 1.30am and took him, Ms Feng, and another Falun Gong member from Hong Kong, Ran Yuk-fun, away.

 At the police station, they met two other Falun Gong members, Huang Wun and Chen Zhao, who were also green-card holders and so allowed to work in the US. Both men were among the Falun Gong members who had gathered at Mr Chan's flat earlier.

 'I believe either the police followed the Falun Gong members or there were undercover police in the group.

 'It was obvious that they followed them when they returned to their hotel, where they were detained,' Mr Chan said.

 He and Mr Ran were expelled from Shenzhen the next day.

 'The police told us that Ms Feng and the other two would be held for 15 days, although they have not shown us any document [promising this],' he said.

 A Falun Gong spokesman in the United States, Gail Rachlin, said the US Ambassador to Beijing, Admiral Joseph Prueher, had been notified of the detentions. Ms Rachlin accused the US Embassy of being lax in helping the trio because they were not full US citizens.

 It is understood Feng is expecting to obtain her US citizenship in two months.

 Foreign passport holders held for Falun Gong activities on the mainland have all been released and expelled shortly after their arrests, usually following pressure by foreign governments.

 US President Bill Clinton has called the crackdown on the outlawed sect a 'troubling example' of the Government acting against those 'who test the limits of freedom'.

 Officials said 35,792 Falun Gong adherents had been taken away for trying to practice Falun Gong in public places between July and October.

 They declined to say if the figure represented those who had been detained.



US green-card holders due for release