Ms. Yan Xiaobao Paralysed as a Result of Persecution

Name: Yan Xiaobao
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Luotian County, Hubei Province
Occupation: Employee of the former Luotian Cocoon Silk Yongkang Company
Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2002
Most Recent Place of Detention: Wuhan Women's Prison
City: Wuhan
Province: Hubei
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, detention, imprisonment, brainwashing, torture, beatings, hung up, sleep deprivation, extortion

Ms. Yan Xiaobao has been repeatedly arrested, persecuted and tortured for her belief in Falun Gong. She became paralyzed as a result of the injuries sustained through long-term torture. Below is a partial account of the persecution that she has suffered to date:

Between December 25th, 1999, and March 21st, 2001, Ms. Yan was arrested five times. Agents from the Luotian County 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) had also extorted from her over 10,000 yuan¹. The following officials were involved in the persecution: former directors of the Luotian 610 Office Yi Dezhi and Lin Boming, former deputy director of the police department Xu Jinyuan, former political and security officer director of the police department Tu Shuguang, and deputy office director Xia Nan.

In March 2001, Ms. Yan was held in a brainwashing facility operated by Yi Dezhi and Xu Jinquan in the Luotian County Civil Administration Bureau. She escaped, but was arrested again two weeks later.

While detained, Ms. Yan was repeatedly beaten by guards, placed in heavy-duty shackles and subjected to other torture. Once when Ye Chengde, a former deputy director of the detention centre, saw her sitting in a cross-legged position while chained and handcuffed, he poured boiling water on her head. Afterward, he said that sitting in a cross-legged position was forbidden.

Ms. Yan was sentenced to four years in prison in 2002. She was jailed in the Second Ward of the First Section in the Wuhan Women's Prison. She was forced to undergo "transformation" [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] and write a guarantee statement to renounce practising Falun Gong. The political instructor Yan Lifeng and guards Chen Xin, Tao Jing, and Su, ordered criminal inmates Hou Changfeng, Liu Qiuxiang, Li Baoju, and Liu Hongmei to beat and kick her. They also verbally abused her, hit her head against the wall and twisted her arms. Then, they forced her to work overnight without sleep.

Two days later, the guards handcuffed her hands behind her back and hung her up for three days and two nights. The handcuffs cut deeply into her wrists, drawing blood. Her arm ligaments were damaged as a result of the hanging, and the scars from the handcuffs are still visible today. For several days afterward, she was still in so much pain that she couldn't sleep.

After she was hung-up a second time, she suffered long-term lower back pain. For several months afterward, she could only sleep for one to two hours a night due to the pain. She also could not stand up straight.

After she was released from prison, the doctors found her vertebrae were severely damaged. As a result, she could no longer work. In July 2010, her spinal injury deteriorated further. She was admitted to the Luotian County People's Hospital for more than 40 days and became paralysed.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/9/11/229489.html