Practitioner Ms. Zhang Lanfen of Laiyang City Is Unlawfully Held in a Mental Hospital

Ms. Zhang Lanfen, 40 years old, is a resident of Dazhuangzi Village, Jiangzhuang Town, Laiyang City, Shandong Province. Ms. Zhang has been practicing Falun Dafa for many years. Since July 20, 1999, Jiang's regime began a campaign to slander and persecute Falun Dafa. Ms. Zhang has been illegally detained by her local town government on three different occasions. She was fined a total of 5,700 yuan [500 yuan is equal to the average monthly salary of an urban worker in China]. Ms. Zhang's cassette recorder and Falun Dafa books have been confiscated.

On January 30, 2000, because Zhang Lanfen participated in a Falun Gong practitioners' experience sharing conference, the local officials illegally put her in the Laiyang City Mental Hospital, where she has suffered inhumane physical torture. The responsible parties forcibly gave her infusions and injections of unknown drugs. She was also forced to take large amounts of medicine orally, sometimes 11 pills at once. Therefore, Ms. Zhang could not sit up or stand steadily, and she often drooled uncontrollably. Whenever she refused to take the pills, members of the medical staff would tie her arms and legs to the bed and strike her with an electric baton. They also inserted a tube through her nose in order to force-feed her medicine and food. In the mental hospital, Ms. Zhang was examined every week, and she was always found to be in good physical condition. However, a male medical staff member somehow concluded, "Practicing Falun Gong makes one ill."

Some time after she was released, on November 24, 2000, Ms. Zhang Lanfen went to visit her mother. Four or five Jiangzhuang Town government officials led by Zhang Li forcibly took her to the Laiyang Ruling Party School for attempted brainwashing. Ms. Zhang refused to eat in order to protest the unreasonable imprisonment. After eight days, she was force-fed and beaten many times.

Because Ms. Zhang persisted in practicing her belief and refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was held in a brainwashing center on three occasions and was later sentenced to two years in a forced labor camp. Town government official Zhang Li, who has since left the town government post, has personally beaten Ms. Zhang and forced her to sit on the frozen snow-covered ground during the middle of winter.

Chinese version available athttp://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/4/6/71720.html