AI URGENT ACTION FALUN GONG PRACTITIONER MISSING IN CHINA

Falun Gong practitioner Jiang Fengwent missing in Shanghai on 18 February and is believed to be detainedby the Chinese authorities. He is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

On 18 February, Jiang Feng went missingat Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport. He checked in for his flightto New York, but never boarded the flight. Airline staff said he was takenaway by public security officials after passing  through the securitycheck point.  The authorities have not told Jiang Feng’s family wherehe is held, and their efforts to obtain information from police in Shanghaiabout his whereabouts have failed. Friends in China believe he may havebeen taken to his home city of Hefei in Anhui province, hundreds of kilometresfrom Shanghai.

Jiang Feng had previously been imprisonedfor three years from 1999 to 2002 for his Falun Gong spiritual practice.When he went missing, he was on his way to join his wife, Mei Xuan, a musicianwith the New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts group. She fled to theUnited States in 2006, following her release from four years' imprisonmentin China for practising Falun Gong. Jiang Feng may have been detained inorder to pressure her to cease her involvement with the Shen Yun PerformingArts group, as some of the group’s performances includes artistic representationsof the persecution of the Falun Gong.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in English,Chinese or your own language:Urging the authorities to reveal JiangFeng’s whereabouts;Calling for his immediate release unlesscharged with an internationally recognized crime;Calling for a guarantee that he willnot be tortured or otherwise ill-treated while he remains in custody.PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 21 JUNE2010 TO:Director of the Anhui ProvincialDepartment of Public SecurityXU Liquan TingzhangAnhuisheng Gong'anting282 AnqingluHefeishi 230061AnhuishengPeople's Republic of ChinaFax: +86 551 2801208Salutation: Dear DirectorDirector of the Hefei City PublicSecurity Bureau  Shouqunlu 290Hefeishi  230041       AnhuishengPeople's Republic of ChinaSalutation: Dear DirectorAnd copies to:Minister of Public Security of thePeople's Republic of ChinaMENG Jianzhu BuzhangGong’anbu14 Dongchang’anjieDongchengquBeijingshi 100741People's Republic of China       Salutation: Dear MinisterAlso send copies to diplomatic representativesof China accredited to your country. Please check with your sectionoffice if sending appeals after the above date.

Additional Information

Falun Gong is a spiritual movement thatgained large numbers of supporters in China during the 1990s. After itstaged a peaceful gathering in Tiananmen Square in July 1999, the governmentoutlawed the group and launched a long-term campaign of intimidation andpersecution, directed by a special organization called the 610 Office.Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily detainedsince the spiritual movement was banned as a "threat to social andpolitical stability". Practitioners have been held in psychiatrichospitals, in Re-education Through Labour (RTL) facilities, a form of administrativedetention imposed without charge, trial or judicial review, or sentencedto long prison terms. Torture and other ill-treatment are endemic in allforms of detention, despite China’s ratification of the UN Conventionagainst Torture in 1988. Falun Gong sources report numerous deaths of practitionersin custody, many caused by torture, in a variety of state institutions,including prisons, RTL facilities and police detention centres.