Name: Duan Xiaoyan (段小燕)
Gender: Female
Age: 40
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Tailor
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 25, 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: First Ward in Qinghai Province Women's Prison (青海省女子监狱)
City: Xining
Province: Qinghai Province
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labor, brainwashing, illegal sentencing, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, torture, force-feedings, extortion, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of restroom use

(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Duan Xiaoyan from Zhenyuan County, Gansu Province was illegally sentenced to seven years of imprisonment in Qinghai Province Women's Prison. She was tortured numerous times there and became paralyzed from the lower back down.

Ms. Duan is 40 years old. She started practicing Falun Dafa in September 1997. After she started practicing, her many illnesses disappeared. She used to be a tailor and her customers all trusted her very much.

On July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin's regime launched the persecution of Falun Gong. In 1999, Ms. Duan went to appeal in Beijing three times and was arrested by the Zhenyuan County police and sent to the Zhenyuan County Detention Center. She went on a hunger strike demanding her release. Several guards, including Qin Dexi, tortured her multiple times with shackles, handcuffs and put her on a death bed.

Ms. Duan was sent to the Pingantai First Detention Center in Lanzhou for one year. Under the instigation of guards Gu Yanling and Wang Yali, four drug addicts, including Mi Lina and group leader Deng Xiaoqin tortured her and tried to force her to write a guarantee statement. When Ms. Duan refused to give in, they deprived her of sleep for fifteen days and continued to force her to work during the day. At night, they forced her to stand until she lost consciousness. They also forced her to stand under the hot baking sun until one night she passed out in the bathroom.

Because Ms. Duan went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, the detention center added three months to her prison term.

Duan Xiaoyan finally returned home in 2001. She was forced to close her store down because the perpetrators from the 610 Office and police station often went to harass her. Afterward, they then went to harass her at her house. She was forced to leave her home and went to Qinghai Province.

She was arrested once on her way to deliver truth-clarification materials to fellow practitioners and was detained at the Ershilipu Detention Center, Xining, Qinghai Province for over five months. Later, she was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment and forced to labor at Qinghai Province Women's Prison. Every day, she had to work over ten hours. Sometimes she was even deprived of sleep the entire night. Ms. Duan resisted the persecution and was hung on an iron door for eight days and eight nights, which caused her legs and feet to become swollen and extremely weak.

Duan Xiaoyan refused to perform the forced labor and requested to be released. After going on a hunger strike for six days, the guards force-fed her for over 40 days. Under the instigation of prison head Ding Xiulan and guard Zhuang Xuefeng, inmate Wang Cuiying force-fed Ms. Duan again. Over the period of a month, she used an electric baton to shock Ms. Duan four times on her head, back and legs. Her face and back were severely burned and blistered from the electric baton shocks.

Ms. Duan was handcuffed to a bed in the sick room and lost consciousness. She was having a hard time walking on her own and could only move bit by bit by leaning on the handrails. She could not take care of herself. Zhuang Xuefeng also asked inmate Liu Huimin to monitor Ms. Duan for 48 hours and not allow her to use the restroom. Ms. Duan's back was burned from the electric baton shocks and she experienced numbness all over her body. There was pain in her arms and legs and she had a hard time moving around on her own. The perpetrators said she was faking it and instigated murderer Wang Cuiying to pull her arm, dragging her downstairs from the third floor. After several rounds of torture, Ms. Duan became paralyzed from waist down.

After the prison doctor diagnosed Duan Xiaoyan as having nerve paralysis, in order to cover up their crime, the prison guards took Ms. Duan to a nearby Red Cross hospital. Prison guards Zhuang Xuefeng and Hao Lanying even forced Ms. Duan to walk on her own. One person suggested they get a car because there was no way Ms. Duan could walk on her own. The perpetrators then had inmates Zhao Guixiang and Liu Xinrong carry Ms. Duan to a car. At the hospital, the guards colluded with the doctor and did an electrocardiogram; however, it was perfunctorily administered.

Ms. Duan became so weak that she could not even hold a cup of water due to the severe suffering she had experienced for over four years.

Ms. Duan's term was up on August 24, 2009. When she returned to her local area, she was detained for a week at the local Office of Justice and then released. The 610 Office personnel and police still often harass her family since her return home.