Mother Illegally Imprisoned; Daughter Forced into Homelessness

Ms. Chen Zhenping, over sixty years old, is from Zhengzhou City of Henan Province. She was imprisoned by local policemen on July 9, 2008, and was subsequently sentenced to prison for eight years on December 15. She has two daughters. One daughter cannot return to China, while the younger daughter cannot go home.

Ms. Chen once suffered from late stage liver cancer. After she started practicing Falun Gong in 1995, her cancer vanished and her temperament improved greatly. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) first started persecuting Falun Gong, Ms. Chen went out to clarify the truth and consequently faced persecution. Her home was illegally searched several times, and she was detained many times. Ms. Chen was subjected to brainwashing and tortured. She was sent to a labor camp, where she was forced to work for over eighteen hours per day. In addition, she was monitored and tortured by two drug addicts. After she was released, Ms. Chen was monitored by local policemen and residential committee members for four years. Her phone was also monitored, and she was not allowed to leave home freely.

On July 9, 2008, dozens of policemen from Dongwuyuan Police Station in Huayuan Road ordered a locksmith to break into Ms. Chen's home. They arrested her and took most of her belongings. One month later, the police and CCP officials sent her to prison for eight years.

Ms. Chen is a single mother with two daughters. The elder daughter Ms. Jin Zhaoyu was stopped by government officials while visiting her fiance and is now unable to return to China. Ms. Chen's younger daughter Jin Zhaohuan was taken out of school, arrested by policemen and tracked after her mother's detention. She is now homeless.

In 2002, Jin Zhaohuan, only eleven years old at the time, went to Beijing with her mother to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. They were both arrested, detained and sent back to Zhengzhou City to undergo "re-education" at a brainwashing center. Ms. Chen suffered a mental collapse from torture while her daughter was unable to attend school. Both held a hunger strike while in custody. Five days later, they were released.

The CCP started to monitor Ms. Jin everywhere she went. Her mail to her friends was intercepted and destroyed. She didn't share with her family how much she had been suffering from the police's constant harassment. Her family only knew that she was mentally exhausted.

Placed under tremendous pressure by the police at such a young age, her grades fell dramatically. She became introverted, lonely and depressed.

Jin Zhaohuan was always cheerful before the persecution began. She started to practice Falun Gong when she was five or six years old. At age nine, when asked to write down her greatest wish, she wrote, "Return to my original, true self." Her mother was arrested several times and each time, Zhaohuan was scared and told her mother, "Mom, don't go outside. It's horrible. I am afraid I won't see you anymore when I go back home."

Zhaohuan's mother was arrested again on July 9, 2008. When she returned home that day, she watched as several policemen removed items from their home. She was scared and hid. She witnessed her mother being physically abused by the officers and dragged away. With tears in her eyes, she called her sister's friend for help. Her sister's friend picked her up right away and arranged for her to stay somewhere else that night. After a while, she dared not go home and was forced to remain out of school.

Jin Zhaohuan went to the Domesticl Security Team to ask for her mother. As a result, the local 610 Office officials from the Domesticl Security Team broke into Ms. Jin Zhaoyu's store and detained Jin Zhaohuan on September 19. Fortunately, she was released at midnight after efforts by family and friends.

Zhaohuan went to the justice department several times to ask that the court ruling against her mother be overturned but was denied each time. On January 4, 2009, she was assaulted by justice department officers.

On January 16, 2009, Ms. Chen was sent to the Women's Prison of Xinxiang City in Hunan Province, where she was detained in the 9th ward. Ms. Chen's friend took Zhaohuan to visit her mother. As a result, this person's home was searched, and her company was also searched. She was so frightened and would not help Ms. Chen anymore.

On April 1, 2009, Zhaohuan went back home to pick up some things. Her neighbor told her, "Poor girl, don't come back home again. The policemen often check if you are home and want to arrest you. They came several times already this month. Recently, the policemen told the building manager to hold you if they find you. The policemen told him to call them back if he finds you."

Zhaohuan thus had no choice but to leave her home.