July 20, 2003

(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Yu Jinfang, 59 years old, is a retired worker of the 2nd Auto Maintenance Factory of Gansu Province.

On July 20, 1999, Lanzhou City police arrested four practitioners for their belief in Falun Gong. Yu Jinfang and other practitioners went to the provincial government to clarify the truth of Dafa and demand that they release the detained practitioners. For doing this, he was detained for six months, and his workplace stopped paying his monthly pension of 400 Yuan [500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China]. It wasn't until January 20, 2000 that he was released.

At the end of 2000, Yu Jinfang overcame all kinds of difficulties and went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Police arrested him at his temporary home in Beijing and brutally tortured him. Police used high voltage electric batons to shock and burn his face leaving his mouth full of large blisters. After being detained in Dongguancun Police Station for twenty days, Yu was escorted back to Lanzhou City. He was then detained for another 15 days in Tiaoshupin Detention Center.

In the middle of the night of November 26, 2001, Lanzhou City Police dispatched over two thousand policemen to conduct a manhunt for practitioner Yuan Jiang. He was captured and tortured to death later. They broke into Yu Jinfang's home. At 3 p.m. on December 11, policeman Lu Zhibing from the first section of Lanzhou City Public Security Bureau at Chengguan District leading a group of officers broke into Yu's home again. They ransacked and then confiscated his third daughter's home. They took away Yu Jinfang, Yu's wife, Ms. Xia Fuying (59 years old), their third daughter, their son-in-law and their maid. Ms. Xia was released two days later. Their daughter and son-in-law were detained for three days and forced to submit 1,000 Yuan before getting released.

Yu Jinfang was detained in Yuzhong County Detention Center in Gansu Province on December 11. After he suffered more than ten days of torture, the detention police informed his family that Yu had been hospitalized at Recovery Center Hospital of Dashapin Forced Labor Camp in Lanzhou City, with a bleeding stomach ulcer. Yu Jinfang went on several days of hunger strike to protest the police's brutal treatment. Police tied him up on an iron bed frame to interrogate him for four days and nights. When Yu was released from the hospital in April 2002, the person of the first section of Public Security Bureau who handled his release process extorted 4,000 Yuan from his family. But the family did not have that much money. His daughters managed to hand in 2,000 Yuan, and Yu's workplace loaned the family 2,000 Yuan. Later, the workplace withheld 2,000 Yuan from Yu's wife's salary.

Later, Yu Jinfang was sent to Dashapin Detention Center in Lanzhou City for two months. Up until June 2003, Mr. Yu lived in an extremely deteriorated situation. The extended period of sleeping on a cold and wet floor left his body covered with scabies and running, bleeding sores. His body had no patch of healthy skin. In the final two months of torture, he was at the edge of death. He had a constant high fever and was unable to take in any food or water. The clinic in the detention center had to inform his daughter. In March 2003, Mr. Yu's daughter handed in 2,000 Yuan to the Recovery Center Hospital of Dashapin Forced Labor Camp in Lanzhou City to get him to be accepted by the hospital. Within a month, Mr. Yu was sent back to the detention center to be tortured again. Under the family's repeated request, he was allowed to stay in the hospital after his family was forced to pay 4,000 Yuan. It has been over three months since Mr. Yu was hospitalized, yet the torture and persecution against him continues and he shows no sign of recovery.

The police are still holding Mr. Yu's third daughter's (Ms. Yu Xia) house and refuse to give it back, which has caused the family to have nowhere to stay.

The Report Hot Line of People's Procuratorate Court of Gansu Province:

86-931-8919125