Name: Jiao Yan (焦艳)
Gender:
Female
Age: 61
Address:
Panjin City, Liaoning

Occupation
: Retired

Date of Most Recent Arrest:
January 2004

Most Recent Place of Detention:
Shenyang Women's Prison (沈阳女子监狱)
Detention City:
Shenyang
Detention Province:
Liaoning
Persecution Suffered:
Sleep deprivation, forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, extortion, physical restraint, interrogation, detention, denial of restroom use.

(Minghui.org) Ms. Jiao Yan is a retired worker from the Liaohe Oilfield. Fourteen years ago the Chinese Communist Party began to persecute Falun Dafa and its practitioners. At the time, Ms. Jiao Yan was 47 and was practicing Falun Dafa. From that time on, Ms. Jiao was repeatedly arrested and held in a labor camp for two years. Later she became homeless to avoid further persecution. The CCP's police officers and neighborhood committee officers tried every conceivable way to have Ms. Jiao return home. After she returned home, Ms. Jiao was arrested and sentenced to a five year prison term in January 2004. She suffered torture and had to perform slave labor at the Shenyang Women's Prison.

Ms. Jiao Yan is now 61 years old. Before practicing Falun Dafa, she suffered from various diseases, including a severe dislocation and deformation of the lumbar spine, which compressed the right leg nerve. She could not hold her eyes open during windy days, had icy cold hands and feet, suffered frequent cramps, had severe neurasthenia, gastric ulcer and gastritis. She became healthy after practicing Falun Dafa.

1. Sentenced to Two Years of Forced Labor

Because she benefited from practicing Falun Dafa, Ms. Jiao Yan went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Dafa at the Appeals Bureau in October 1999. Beijing Dongcheng District Police illegally arrested her and detained her in the Dongcheng Police Station for two days and nights. She was picked up by her husband's colleagues. Back in her hometown, Ms. Jiao was subjected to intimidation and imprisonment.

In November 1999, Ms. Jiao once again went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Dafa. She was intercepted by police before arriving at the Appeals Bureau and taken back to her hometown. She was put in detention by the community officers and Liaohe Oilfield police.

At the end of December 1999, Ms. Jiao Yan went to Beijing to appeal for the third time. She was arrested and detained by the Qianmen Police Station police. Liu Fengzhen, the neighborhood committee chief, and Cui from the Retirees' Office transferred her to the Liaohe Oilfield Detention Center. On the first day, she was handcuffed and her feet were shackled. She was forced to sit in an iron chair for 24 hours and not given any food or drink. One week later, Ms. Jiao was sentenced to two years of forced labor and taken to the Panjin Forced Labor Camp. She was one of twenty Falun Dafa practitioners at that camp.

2. Court Sentences Her to a Five Year Prison Term

Ms. Jiao Yan returned home in May 2001. She refused to renounce Falun Dafa. Liu Fengzhen, the Oilfield Neighborhood Committee chief, and police attempted to arrest her many times, arriving with many policeman in five to six police cars each time. She was forced to become homeless to avoid the persecution.

On December 26, 2003, Liu Fengzhen and others from the Oilfield Neighborhood Committee repeatedly used the bait of guaranteeing that she would not be persecuted, to have Ms. Jiao return home. Upon her return home, she went to the Retirees' Office on the 1 st floor of the Xinglongtai Oil Production Plant to collect a housing subsidy. She was waylaid by four strong men who carried her to a police car. They took her to the Liaohe Oilfield Detention Center and detained her for fifteen days. Then Ma Li from the Liaohe Oilfield Court, who repeatedly framed practitioners, sentenced Ms. Jiao to a five year prison term, claiming that she had undermined the enforcement of law.

Ms. Jiao appealed to the Panjin Intermediate Court and asked Prosecutor Kong, “What law did I undermine?” They could not respond and simply told her a few minutes later that they upheld the original judgment. They did not even bother to notify her family. The whole process was simply a formality. Ms. Jiao was taken to Shenyang Women's Prison.

3. Beatings, Torture and Slave Labor at Shenyang Women's Prison

Ms. Jiao Yan was detained at District No. 10 in Shenyang Women's Prison, where she was tortured. She had to get up at 6 a.m. and work from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in her cell. There were times when she was forced to work throughout the night. When she could not complete the quota because of being deprived of sleep, they fined her. The police extorted money from her family, warning them that they would extend her term if they wouldn't pay. Two prisoners from District No. 8 died.

Once, the police ordered prisoners Wang Li, a drug offender, and Li Xuedan to abuse Ms. Jiao. They slapped her face and hit her with a board for hours. Her face became disfigured and was purple and blue, and her ears were injured and bleeding. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth and her clothes were stained with blood. They covered her mouth, so that she couldn't make a sound when suffering excruciating pain. She no longer could hear with her left ear and her left eye was so swollen that everything became blurry. She also was not allowed to use the toilet during the day.

For food she was given boiled cabbage, radish and two steamed buns. When someone came for an inspection, they gave her some meat and white steamed buns.

Ms. Jiao Yan's family was under tremendous mental stress, so her husband divorced her in 2001. In order not to implicate her family, Ms. Jiao didn't live with them from 2001 to 2008.