Ms. Zhang Shuzhen Repeatedly Detained in Harbin

Name: Zhang Shuzhen
Gender: Female
Age: 60
Address: Acheng District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Retired

Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 13th, 2009
Most recent place of detention: Ducks House Detention Centre
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Detention, extortion, solitary confinement, forced labour, beatings.

Ms. Zhang Shuzhen is retired from the Relays Factory in the Acheng District of Harbin City. She started to practise Falun Gong in 1996. Before that, she suffered from many illnesses, such as neurasthenia, bronchitis, and more. Soon after she started to practise Falun Gong, all those illnesses disappeared. Ms. Zhang has been well-known for her kindness. During the last several years, she has been detained and persecuted repeatedly. At present, she is being held in the Ducks House Detention Centre in Harbin City, and so far no detailed information is available.

Held in a Local Detention Centre, Her Son Implicated

On January 29th, 2000, Ms. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practise Falun Gong and was arrested on Tiananmen Square. Then she was taken to a local detention centre and held there until she was released on April 17th. The Security Department of the Relay Factory fined her family 5,000 yuan¹.

On June 19th, 2000, practitioners being held in the Acheng Second Detention Centre carried out a hunger strike and requested to be released unconditionally. In a co-ordinated effort, Ms. Zhang and other practitioners went to the door of the detention centre to ask for the imprisoned practitioners. Detention centre officials not only did not release those incarcerated, but arrested 15 more practitioners, including Ms. Zhang. She began a hunger strike to protest this arrest, and half a month later she was released on medical parole.

Then Ms. Zhang and her husband went to Changchun City and stayed there for several days. Soon after the couple returned home, officials from the Public Security Section of the Relay Factory told Ms. Zhang to write a guarantee statement to renounce Falun Gong so that her son, who worked as a police officer at the Heping Police Station of Acheng District, could keep his job. Because Ms. Zhang did not write the statement and continued to practice Falun Gong, her son was fired by former deputy director Xing of the Public Security Bureau.

Soon thereafter, the police of the public security department lured Ms. Zhang to their office and later took her to the Second Detention Centre of Acheng. This time, officials of the public security department had arranged everything before they arrested her.

Persecuted in Wanjia Forced Labour Camp

Ms. Zhang spent two years at the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City, where she was monitored by criminals and locked in a cell.

In June 2001, officials from the camp held a meeting to come up with ways to intensify the persecution of practitioners. Ms. Zhang and several other practitioners were taken to a stage, where it was announced that their terms had been extended for an additional year. Following that meeting, Ms. Zhang was returned to the cell and hung up.

Once, Ms. Zhang and ten other practitioners were hung up, then confined in a male camp for more than 20 days. Later, the guards even let Ms. Zhang's mother come to the camp in an attempt to appeal to Ms. Zhang's sentimentality to "transform" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] her.

On another occasion, prison guards brutally beat practitioners. Ms. Zhang tried to stop them and to protect the practitioners. Male guards were told to join the beatings. Ms. Zhang was beaten until she fell down and could not stand up.

In September 2001, she suffered from scabies and ulceration due to severe maltreatment. Officials of the forced labour camp had to release her for medical treatment, however, the guards extorted 5,000 yuan from her family.

On December 5th, 2002, the persecution of practitioners became much more severe. Their activities were monitored. That day, plainclothes police surrounded Ms. Zhang's home. Her elderly mother went downstairs to go shopping and was taken away by the police, because they were afraid that she would inform Ms. Zhang, who might then get away. As soon as she returned home, several officers knocked at her door, while others put a ladder up to her window, intending to break in. When Ms. Zhang opened her door, the police rushed in and confiscated everything. Both Ms. Zhang and her husband were taken to the local police station and fined 1000 yuan.

Later, Ms. Zhang was sentenced two years and taken to Wanjia Forced Labour Camp.

Persecuted in the Ducks House Detention Centre in Harbin

In 2005, Ms. Zhang was released. Because she had been persecuted during the previous several years, her family had debts. Ms. Zhang went to Harbin City to find a job to repay those debts.

At about 1:00 p.m. on August 13th, 2009, she was reported to the police when she was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. Officers from the Xianfeng Road Police Station arrested her. That night, she was taken to the Ducks House Detention Centre in Harbin City. Her family members went to the centre several times but were not allowed to see her. So far, no further information is available.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/12/25/215040.html