Veteran NZ Falun Gong campaigner held in Hong Kong – sect

New Zealand diplomats are probing the alleged detention at Hong Kong airport of a veteran campaigner for the Falun Gong spiritual group, an official said yesterday.

Sect members said Jenny Lee, an elderly Chinese-born campaigner who now lives in New Zealand, was being held in the former British colony on unspecified grounds.

“She was detained on Monday night and we have not been able to find out what for,” said Lu Jie, a Hong Kong-based member of the group, which is outlawed in mainland China.

“All she was able to tell us in a quick phone call was that she was being held and that her flight ticket had been taken from her.”

New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry spokesman Jonathan Schwass yesterday said the department understood the woman had since left Hong Kong.

She had not sought any assistance from the ministry.

A spokeswoman at the New Zealand consulate-general confirmed it had been asked to investigate the alleged detention of a New Zealand passport holder believed connected to the sect.

“We are trying to get information but so far Hong Kong immigration have not given us any,” she said.

Lee, believed to be in her 60s, was among 16 practitioners of the Buddhism-inspired sect who in 2002 were arrested for obstruction during a rowdy protest outside China’s representative Hong Kong office.

She is believed to have travelled to Hong Kong to visit relatives and to speak to her lawyer about other Falun Gong matters.

The Falun Gong once claimed millions of followers on the mainland but has been outlawed as an “evil cult” by Beijing since 1999.

Members maintain it involves peaceful and harmless yoga-style meditation practices.

The group claims that at least 1600 of its members have been tortured or beaten to death in China since a crackdown ordered four years ago largely drove the organisation underground.

Although the sect is not banned in Hong Kong, which has its own government and legal system, members have often been stopped there by immigration officers, prompting accusations that Hong Kong is acting on the orders of officials in Beijing.

The city has repeatedly denied sect claims that it keeps a blacklist of members China wants kept from the territory.

Read Another Article

Russian State Duma Kicks Scientologists out of Parliamentary Building
Jesus banned from Christmas carol

Related News Articles Topic(s): Falun Gong Subscribe to Religion News Blog updates Subscribe to Religion News Blog [What is this?] Get Religion News Blog's headline by Email [What is this?] Follow Religion News Blog at Twitter Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults: ApologeticsSearch.com: Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs. CounterCultSearch.com: Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, and cults experts -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support. Find Related Religion & Spirituality Books at Amazon.com Falun Gong Possibly related... or Most Popular Religion News Articles Kent Hovind: Evangelist arrested on federal charges Beast’s real mark devalued to ’616′ Muslim Woman Gives Sex Advice on Arab TV Michael Jackson Confirms Conversion to Islam Kent Hovind, ‘Dr. Dino,’ guilty on all counts The fall and rise of Carlton Pearson Search False prophet Harold Camping sets another date for rapture: May 21, 2011 Watch the film Theo van Gogh was murdered for Kent Hovind — Dr. Dino — sentenced to 10 years in prison

Search Religion News Blog