14-Year-Old Girl Severely Beaten by Police

On August 24th, 2008, a 14-year-old girl went to Linjiang Street Police Station and asked them to release her 38-year-old mother, Zhang Libo, who had been detained there for more than three months. The girl was driven away. On August 25th, when she went back a second time, she was beaten by the police and injured.

Zhang’s parents died at early age. Her husband divorced her when their daughter was eight months old. She opened a tailor shop to make a living for herself and her daughter. In 1998, Zhang began to practise Falun Gong. She followed the principle of the practice—“Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance”—and tried to do good deeds and offered to help others in need.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, Zhang started to distribute pamphlets explaining the facts about Falun Gong. Consequently, she was abducted by the police, and was almost beaten to deaf. She was later sentenced to labour camp for one year.

On May 27th, 2008, just before the Beijing Olympics, Zhang was abducted again from a supermarket by Yuan Chunlei, a policeman from the Linjiang Police Station. Her 14-year-old daughter was left behind without any means of care or support. Three months later, the school year was about to start, and the room they originally rented was given out by the landlord to others. Zhang’s daughter had no money to pay for the tuition and living expenses.

On August 24th Zhang’s daughter went to the Linjiang Street Police Station with luggage in hand and asked them to release her mother. The head of the station threatened her that they would inform the school’s dean about her. They later told the girl to get her aunt to come in and sign a document, then he would talk to the bureau chief about releasing her mother. He then forcefully dropped her off at the home of her former neighbour.

On August 25th, the Zhang’s sister rushed over from the countryside. She took the girl to the police station to sign the document. However, the police refused to release Zhang, and the station head officers forced Zhang’s sister to sign a document that she would take the girl away. When the girl insisted they release her mother, the station head ordered two policemen to drag the girl over. Zhang’s sister held the girl’s hands and refused to let her go. The girl was hit on the face by the police and fell to the ground; she was then dragged to another room. Policeman Yuan Chunlei hit and kicked her dozens of times, and as a result, her head became swollen and she became very dizzy. She remained unclear until that afternoon. The police warned her that if she continued to ask for her mother’s release again, she would be sent to a juvenile detention centre.

Zhang’s relatives are farmers, who only have an annual income of four to five thousand yuan (approximately US$ 600-700). The hand costs for the girl’s living and tuition is about 8,000 yuan ($1,170) a year. Even though her aunt has taken her in, the girl has no home and school she can go to now.