Ms. Yan Chunling Serving Nine-Year Prison Sentence for Practising Falun Gong

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yan Chunling from Harbin City was sentenced to nine years in prison by Chinese Communist Party officials. Seven years later, prison officials have forbidden her family from seeing her for the past two years because she refuses to wear the prison uniform. In addition, they have locked her up long term in a small cell.

Ms. Yan, from the Nangang District in Harbin City, was born in 1963. She was in poor health prior to practising Falun Gong and suffered from many conditions: myocarditis, cholecystitis, hyper-thyroidism, and benzene poisoning. She was not able to work and could not walk up the stairs that led to her home. Her family had to spend a great amount of money for her medical treatment every year.

Ms. Yan began her Falun Gong practice in the spring of 1994. Soon all her illnesses disappeared, and she became energetic, as if she had changed into another person.

The Communist regime's ruthless persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20th, 1999. Ms. Yan decided to share her own experiences to appeal for Falun Gong in Beijing. Having no money for travel, she set off walking on October 2nd, 1999. Ten days later, officials caught her in Gongzhuling, Jilin Province, and took her back to the Harbin Second Detention Centre. While in detention she was forced to get up at 5:00 a.m. and work till midnight. Ms. Yan went on a persecution protest hunger strike but was lashed with rubber tubing. Her captors put her in handcuffs and shackles for over 70 days, until her release on January 6th, 2000.

On May 9th, 2000 Ms. Yan set off for Beijing to appeal for the second time, this time travelling by train. But police arrested her on the train and took her to the Harbin Second Detention Centre again. Ms. Yan refused to take injections. The guards tortured her. One stepped on her head and had her kicked and beaten, and then forced her to sit on a metal chair. Ms. Yan carried out a persecution protest hunger strike for 18 days, but the guards force-fed and tortured her for several days. Officials sentenced her to one year of forced labour and sent her to the notorious Wanjia Forced Labour Camp.

While there, because Ms. Yan refused to write statements to renounce practising Falun Gong, the guards locked her up in a small cell and forced her to stand on a piece of tile for three days in a row. When she fell, they beat her, hung her up “Airplane-style,” and tortured her further, using “Riding an Airplane.”

In June 2000 the guards locked Ms. Yan in a prison cell containing all male inmates for two days. She was not allowed to use the bathroom. In addition, they deprived her of sleep for four weeks. Ms. Yan developed scabies all over her body. When the prison doctor peeled the pus-and-blood-crusted scabies off her, the pain was intense. The “treatment” caused a severe infection. Ms. Yan ran a 40°C (104°F) fever for more than 40 days. Officials not only did not let her family see her, but also extended her term by another three months.

Nine Years of Imprisonment; One Year in a “Small Cell”

Three years later, on May 19th, 2003, officials arrested Ms. Yan once again and sentenced her to nine years in prison. Ms. Yan refused to accept the sentence. She refused to sign the document or put on the prison uniform, but persisted in practising the Falun Gong exercises. She was locked up in a small cell for more than a year.

Harbin Women’s Prison authorities kept refusing to accept Ms. Yan. Each time the police failed to get her incarcerated at the facility, they would beat her, fuming with rage. This happened at least five times, till April 28th, 2004. Later on the police finally came to an agreement with the prison officials via a backdoor agreement and delivered Ms. Yan to the prison. While there, Ms. Yan refused to co-operate with any of the prison officials' demands. The guards locked her up in a small cell for 97 days.

The guards did not let Ms. Yan out until August 2nd, 2004, after she had developed a series of symptoms including myocarditis, high blood pressure, and a darkened face. They feared she would die.

Officials transferred Ms. Yan to the 11th Prison Ward, known as the “Striking Hard Division,” on November 19th, 2006, where eight inmates monitored her day and night. She did not co-operate with the evildoers and off and on shouted “Falun Gong is good!” for several days. Prison guard Wang Liya beat and kicked her.

Two years later, on August 3rd, 2008, Ms. Yan’s mother learned that she had been locked up in a small cell for a long time and that the prison guards had kept her in handcuffs and shackles for 96 days. Her mother and sister-in-law went to the prison almost every month trying to see her, but, as of this writing, they have so far been unsuccessful.

Because of the horrible conditions and being kept long-term in the small cell, Ms. Yan now suffers from pain all over her body, in addition to high blood pressure, myocarditis, and frequent vomiting.

Ms. Yan has suffered seven years of abuse and mistreatment in the prison simply for upholding her belief.

Her family members are terribly worried about her.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/7/19/227190.html