Country: Belgium
Name: Matthias Slaats, 30, male, Project Manager
Location of incident: Beijing, China

Description:

Mr. Matthias Slaats stated that he went to Beijing to “ask the Chinese government to release the detained Falun Gong practitioners, to respect the human rights of all Falun Gong practitioners and to stop the horrible and illegal persecution of Falun Gong in China.”

On February 14, 2002, a policeman on Tiananmen Square stopped Mr. Slaats. The policeman searched his backpack, and found a banner saying “Falun Dafa Hao” (Falun Dafa is good). He was then put in a police van and taken to the police station. All of his personal belongings, including a cell phone, walkman, souvenirs and Falun Dafa books and tapes, were taken from him.

He was transferred to another police station and was interrogated for several hours and kept in custody for an entire night with at least 15 other Falun Dafa practitioners. The following day he was deported and told that he was forbidden to enter China again.