BEIJING — Chinese police have detained the daughter of a member of the banned Falun Gong sect, apparently for trying to publicize her mother's death while in custody, her husband said Saturday.
Police took Zhang Xueling from her home on Monday, said her husband, Ding Zhongyuan. Police would not let Ding visit his wife, but he said the 15-day detention order police showed him at the prison accused her of "distorting facts to undermine social peace."
Police would not explain the charge, but Ding said Zhang had been trying to publicize the circumstances of her mother's death and had met with reporters.
Zhang's detention comes just before the one-year anniversary Tuesday of a huge Falun Gong protest outside the Communist leadership's compound in Beijing. The daylong silent protest last April 25 drew 10,000 Falun Gong followers and shocked Chinese President Jiang Zemin. He ordered a crackdown, and the group was publicly banned in July.
Zhang's mother, Chen Zixiu, was an avid follower of Falun Gong, a mixture of traditional beliefs, slow-motion exercises and ideas drawn from its founder that is believed to promote health and that attracted millions of Chinese in the 1990s. Like thousands of followers, Chen traveled to Beijing to protest the July ban.
According to the government, Chen, 59, was intercepted on her way to Beijing in February and taken to an office for "education."
Four days later, authorities told the family Chen was dead. In an account Zhang posted on the Internet, she described Chen's body as covered in bruises, her ears a dark purple, her teeth broken. Out in the yard, she found Chen's clothes cut to ribbons, her underwear soiled.
People detained along with Chen claimed that police beat her and others who refused to sign a written pledge to renounce Falun Gong, the account said.
The information office for China's cabinet claims that Chen was never mistreated. In its account, Chen's health worsened while in custody and she was taken to a hospital where she died from a heart attack.
At least 15 Falun Gong followers have died in custody since the group was banned nine months ago. The government has denied any abuse, saying that the practitioners either committed suicide or died of natural causes.