Ms. Zhang was arrested, without formal charges or evidence of wrongdoing, by the Domestic Security Team of Changning District Police Precinct in Shanghai, when she was on her way home from shopping in a supermarket on September 8.

Ms. Zhang Ying Tortured at a Detention Center in Shanghai

Name: Zhang Ying
Gender: Female
Age: 39
Address: South Street of Baoshan District, Shanghai 
Occupation: Unknown

Date of Most Recent Arrest: September 8, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Changning District Detention Center
City: Shanghai
Persecution Suffered: Imprisonment, Physical Constraint, Force-Feedings, Interrogation, Hung Up, Torture

Ms. Zhang Ying has been on a hunger strike for 30 days to protest her illegal arrest and interrogation with torture. She was brutally force fed while her four limbs were tied to a bed. She was very weak and could not stand up. Her family has called for help to rescue her.

Her lawyer, Mr. Zhang Weili of Jingshun Law Firm in Beijing, saw her on September 23. Mr. Zhang said, "I saw her in the Shanghai Prison Hospital at 3 p.m. while she was receiving medical treatment. She was in poor physical condition." Attorney Zhang added, "Now she cannot walk on her own and needs to hold onto someone to walk. She was very weak. Her blood pressure was 140/200."

Ms. Zhang told her lawyer that she was interrogated with torture. Her lawyer has written a legal document based on her account and sent it to the the Police Department and the Procuratorate to request an investigation.

She was arrested on September 8 by the Domestic Security Team of Changning District Police Precinct, when she was on her way home after shopping in a supermarket. She was then held in Changning District Detention Center.

Ms. Zhang told her lawyer, "When the police arrested me, they did not show me any summons or arrest warrant. It was illegal."

On that day she was taken to Xianxia Road Police Station. The police asked her repeatedly if she knew an elderly man. They did not have any evidence to hold her. Police officers Wei Liguang, Yang Ying (female), Chen Ying (female), Chen Hao, Zhu Fengming, and Qian Jun cuffed Ms. Zhang's hands behind her back and hung her in the air. Ms. Zhang was in such excruciating pain that she passed out. Even though her blood pressure also shot up to 140/200, the detention center did not have her examined. She held a hunger strike in the detention center and was sent to the General Hospital of Prison for emergency care four days later.

Ms. Zhang's mother told a Clearwisdom correspondent that she and her husband and Ms. Zhang's in-laws all depend on Ms. Zhang to take care of them. Ms. Zhang's arrest means that the four elderly people have lost their caretaker. She and her husband went to the authorities to demand their daughter's release, but no one responded to them. She said, "I rely on Zhang Ying to care for us. I'm so worried about what has happened to her that my heart disease is acting up, and I don't have the money to go see a doctor."

This was Ms. Zhang's fourth arrest. Prior to this, she served a forced labor term twice and was held in a brainwashing center. She was subjected to different brutal tortures. Her husband, Lan Bing, was illegally sentenced to 10 years in prison and was tortured until he almost lost his eyesight when he was jailed in Tilanqiao Prison. He had just been released for a few months and was arrested again for the fourth time. The couple had just been reunited after being separated for eight years, but now they are separated again.