(Minghui.org) A woman in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, was admitted to the Nanjing City Women’s Prison in the provincial capital to serve a three-year term for her faith in Falun Gong, the Minghui.org website recently learned.
Ms. Pan Hanyu, 74, was arrested on March 7, 2023, for distributing Falun Gong materials. The Tongzhou District Domestic Security Office submitted her case to the local procuratorate, but details about her indictment, trial, and sentencing aren’t clear.
Overview of Past Persecution
Ms. Pan, born in March 1951, is retired from the Nantong Petrochemical Machinery Plant. She began to practice the mind-body discipline Falun Gong in January 1997. Many of the ailments that had tormented her for decades, including heart disease, stomach ulcer, frozen shoulder, arthritis, and sciatica, soon disappeared.
After the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution of Falun Gong two years later, Ms. Pan remained firm in her faith, and was repeatedly targeted as a result. Prior to her latest persecution, she was held in brainwashing centers three times, given three labor camp terms totaling five years and eight months, and sentenced to three years in prison. In addition to physical detention and torture, she also suffered financial persecution by having her salary suspended for years.
Her persecution also brought endless agony to her family. Her 92-year-old father-in-law was saddened after visiting her in the labor camp and died shortly after. Her own father, in his 90s, developed depression due to her extended detention, and passed away. Her elderly mother-in-law missed her so much that she cried frequently.
Arrested for Appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing
Ms. Pan went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong on December 28, 1999, and was arrested. She was beaten and escorted back to Nantong. Officer Lyu Jianjun of the Tongzhou District Police Department ransacked her home and held her at the Tongzhou District Detention Center for six months. She wrote letters to the local judicial institutions and detention center after being released, and urged them not to participate in the persecution, only to be arrested and have her home ransacked again.
First Labor Camp Term
After another arrest on October 14, 2000, Ms. Pan was taken to the Judong Women’s Forced Labor Camp on November 22, 2000, to serve a two-year term. As she refused to renounce Falun Gong, the guards didn’t allow her to open a commissary account or be visited by her family.
The guards and inmates also beat Ms. Pan daily. The inmates once held her down and sat on her abdomen, while hitting her on the head and body. Many inmates watched the beating, but no one tried to stop it. She felt dizzy and nauseous and had a large swelling on her head. She felt stabbing pain in her abdomen and couldn’t fall asleep at night.
Ms. Pan also vomited blood. But because she had seen two practitioners (Ms. Chen Yujie from Nanjing City and Ms. Zhou Xiaolan from Changzhou City) become incapacitated after being taken to the hospital for basic treatment, she didn’t tell anyone about her condition for fear of being subjected to further persecution in the hospital. Yet the inmates who beat her demanded compensation from her, leading to tremendous financial loss.
On May 25, 2001, the labor camp guards ordered Ms. Pan to hand-copy a notice from the Ministry of Public Security that defamed Falun Gong. She refused to comply and was forced to stand for eleven consecutive days. The guards left the windows open and she had mosquito bites all over her body. Meanwhile, several guards shocked her with electric batons on the head, back, and legs, leaving her covered with injuries.
The guards forced her to stand outdoors in the freezing wind during the winter. In the summer, she was forced to stand under the scorching sun for hours, and she fainted due to the heat. The guards also extended her term three times, by a total of seven months.
Five More Arrests
Ms. Pan visited her son in Nanjing and was arrested there in May 2005. She was detained for many days and deprived of sleep. Agents from the Tongzhou District Domestic Security Office arrested her at her son’s home again in June 2005 and took her to the Tongzhou District Brainwashing Center. After more than ten days there she was taken to a detention center and detained for 15 days. On July 2, only days after being released, she was arrested again and detained for another 24 days. She was forced to work without pay during that time.
Ms. Pan was arrested another time in June 2006 in Nanjing by agents from the Nantong City 610 Office. She was first held at a brainwashing center for 14 days, then taken to a lockup for 15 days. Four days after she was released, she was taken back into custody at the Nantong City Detention Center. During her 24 days of detention there, she was again forced to work without pay.
Second Labor Camp Term
Ms. Pan was arrested in Nanjing one more time on January 9, 2007. She was taken back to Nantong, handcuffed behind her back, and deprived of sleep. Ten days later she was transferred to the Tongzhou District Detention Center, then taken to the Nanjing City Women’s Detention Center on January 23, 2007, to serve a 1.5-year forced labor term, which was further extended by one month.
Inmate Jin Xiaohong, a drug addict, beat Ms. Pan, but the guards turned a blind eye when she reported it. As she refused to renounce Falun Gong, the guards held her in solitary confinement and didn’t allow her to sleep until 3 a.m. She was also denied use of the restroom and washing herself. She was eventually forced to verbally abuse the founder of Falun Gong in order to be given the most basic rights.
Third Labor Camp Term
Ms. Pan’s next arrest was at home on May 11, 2011, by officers Du Jianping and Chen Jinjian. Her Falun Gong materials and other personal belongings were confiscated. She was taken to a brainwashing session in a hotel and held there for days.
She was arrested again on June 21, 2011, not long after her release. One week into her detention at the Nanjing City Detention Center, she was given a one-year forced labor camp term. The police accused her of “running around,” because she traveled frequently between Nantong, Nanjing, and Shanghai.
While serving time at the Judong Women’s Forced Labor Camp, guards Xu Yanqiu and Ding Hui frequently tortured Ms. Pan. They once stripped her clothes, shocked her with five electric batons, and forced her to stand on the baton barefooted. Her term was extended by seven months.
Brainwashing Center Detention
Ms. Pan was arrested on April 21, 2014, and taken to the Nanjing Brainwashing Center, even when her 96-year-old father was in critical condition. An insider asked the 610 Office agents why they arrested her. They responded that it was because they hadn’t arrested her for a long time and she needed some “refreshers.”
Ms. Pan was detained for over 70 days, then transferred to the Jiangsu Province Brainwashing Center, for not renouncing Falun Gong. The police continued to harass her after she was released from the brainwashing center 70 days later.
Sentenced to Three Years in Prison
Ms. Pan moved to Nanjing shortly after and was arrested again on August 17, 2015, by officers from the Houzaimen Police Station. She was put in criminal detention at the Nanjing City Detention Center.
Ms. Pan and five other practitioners appeared in the Xuanwu District Court on May 31, 2016. The authorities dispatched more than 100 armed officers to stay outside the court during the hearing to prevent other local practitioners from getting close.
The six practitioners were sentenced to from 15-month to four-year prison terms on December 7, 2016. Ms. Pan was given three years and fined 30,000 yuan. She was transferred to the Nanjing City Women’s Prison in January 2017.
Related Reports:
Ten Nanjing Women Arrested and Sentenced
Nanjing, Jiangsu Province: Six Women Tried for Their Faith, Supporters Arrested
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