Name: Yan Tingzhen (颜廷珍)
Gender: Female
Age: 38
Address: Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 13, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Harbin No. 2 Detention Center (哈尔滨第二看守所)
City: Harbin
Province: Heilongjiang
Persecution Suffered: Forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, beatings, hanging up, imprisonment, torture, detention
(Minghui.org) Police from Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang Province arrested 56 practitioners on November 13, 2011, and eventually sent 15 of them to forced labor camps. Ms. Yan Tingzhen was first held at the Shuangcheng Detention Center and later moved to the Harbin No. 2 Detention Center. She suffered from severe heart disease.
Yan Tingzhen
Ms. Yan’s parents went to the detention center and the Shuangcheng Police Department a number of times to see their daughter, but they were denied meeting her every time. In the Shuangcheng Domestic Security Division, they saw a photo of Ms. Yan during an interrogation. She looked pale and thin, and her hair was a mess. The parents decided to hire a lawyer to get their daughter released.
Ms. Yan earned a Master’s degree from Northeast Forestry University in 2001. She began to practice Falun Gong in 1997 while an undergraduate in college. At the time she suffered from a heart problem, presumably due to stressful school work. She recovered completely after practicing Falun Gong. After the communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999 she was forced to give up the practice. Shortly after that her heart condition recurred. She resumed the practice in 2002, and was repeatedly detained and tortured.
Tortured in Wanjia Forced Labor Camp
Dongli District Domestic Security Police chief Zhang Guofang, policeman Wang Yi, and another officer arrested Ms. Yan at home on June 30, 2005. The police sentenced her to two years of forced labor. She was incarcerated in the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp for two years and two months. After refusing to write statements that compromised her belief, the guards put her in solitary confinement. Enduring the long-time torture and mistreatment made half of her hair turn white. On July 22, 2005, the guards forced her to squat on one piece of brick the whole day long, from 5 a.m. to midnight. This torture went on till August 1.
From July 21 to the end of October 2005, she wrote four articles revealing the communist regime’s crimes. Labor Camp head Lu Zhenshan was furious and ordered the guards to torture her. During the day they roped and hung her up by her arms; at night they put her in a metal chair. When she fainted while she was suspended, the guards poured cold water on her to wake her up and hung her up again. The torture was too much for her. She wrote the Three Statements to give up her belief against her better judgment, but she was still tied in a metal chair for a month.
Torture Re-enactment: Steel Chair
Ms. Yan endured 40 days in a metal chair at Wanjia Forced Labor Camp, plus the hanging torture and electric shocks. Her release date was also extended by two months, from the original June 29 to August 29, 2005.
Arrested Again; Family Denied Visit
Ms. Yan was arrested again in November 13, 2011. Policemen Wang Yibiao and Xiao Jitian from the Shuangcheng Domestic Security Unit participated. She was sent to the Harbin Number Two Detention Facility and remains there till this day. After a hunger strike, her heart condition worsened.
Her parents went to see her in Harbin several times, but have not been allowed to see her even once. They went to the Shuangcheng Domestic Security Division, asking for their daughter’s release. Policeman Wang Yibiao said, "No way.” Between February 7 and 9, 2012, her parents went to Shuancheng three times, but no one was there to hear their request.
On February 13, 2012, they and other family members went to the Shuancheng Police Department at 8 a.m., but two officers stopped them. They waited outside till noon, when officer Xiao Jitian came downstairs.
Ms. Yan’s mother told him that they are there to demand their daughter’s release. Instead of answering the request, Xiao shoved Ms. Yan's mother aside. Family members confronted Xiao, "How can you treat an elderly lady this way?" They also told him that Falun Gong practitioners are good people who followed Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and mistreating good people will bring retribution. Xiao got in his car and quickly drove off.
Harbin Police Denied Arresting Ms. Yan
On March 2012, family members and a lawyer went to the detention center. A policewoman told them they were not allowed to see Ms. Yan. The lawyer said, “The law states that a detainee cannot be denied family visits.
Calling her supervisor the officer said, "Our local policy denies any visit to detainees who committed the crime of 'using an evil cult organization to inhibit law enforcement.'”
The lawyer asked who had brought the charges against Ms. Yan. The officer said it was the 610 Office from the Harbin Police Department.
When the family went to the Harbin Police Department, the 610 Office agents told them they never handled Ms. Yan’s arrest. The lawyer said, "Detention center officials said your office is responsible for the case." They told the lawyer to ask Ms. Yan’s family. The lawyer responded that no one had given the family any notice of their daughter’s arrest.
Ms. Yan’s parents are appealing to the public to help rescue their daughter.
