Name: Zhao Yuhuan (赵玉环)
Gender: Female
Age: 40's
Occupation: Chinese teacher at Qinhuangdao No. 7 Middle School
Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 30, 2008
Most recent place of detention: Shijiazhuang Women's Prison (石家庄女子监狱)
City: Shijiazhuang
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Sleep Deprivation, Forced Labor, Beatings, Torture, Forced Feeding, Physical Restraint
Defense attorney: Li Heping (李和平)
(Clearwisdom.net) (Correspondent from Hebei Province) Ms. Zhao Yuhuan was arrested in Beijing on November 30, 2008, and sentenced on May 13, 2009. She was transferred from the Beijing Chaoyang District Detention Center to the Beijing Daxing Dispatch Division on August 5, 2009, and then to the Fourteenth Section of Shijiazhuang Women's Prison in Hebei Province. Ms. Zhao has been on a hunger strike to protest her arrest.
Ms. Zhao is a college graduate, an excellent Chinese teacher with an outstanding performance, and very popular among students. The class she was in charge of was awarded the most outstanding class as a result of her efforts. She has great literature skills, and had many articles published in diverse newspapers and magazines.
On November 30, 2008, while she was distributing Falun Dafa flyers, Ms. Zhao was arrested by officers from the Chaoyang District Heping Street Police Station of the Beijing Police Department. On May 13, 2009, the Chaoyand District Court held a trial against Ms. Zhao and two other practitioners at the Chaoyang District Wenyuhe Court inside the Louzizhuang Township government building. Li Heping, Ms. Zhao's defense attorney, made an innocent plea. He stated that the behavior of Ms. Zhao was legitimate. Judge Sun Xiaojuan, prosecutors Zhang Xing and Sun Yang did not challenge the defense attorney's statement. They ended the trial, saying that the final judgment would be made by the three parties together.
Ms. Zhao underwent a hunger strike to protest her arrest when she was detained. She was taken to the emergency room where she was handcuffed and shackled on a bed for more than a month. The feeding tube was never pulled out during that whole period. As a result, she suffered stomach pain and swelling of her stomach. She became too weak to walk by herself. Ms. Zhao was taken back to the detention center around March 25, 2009.
On August 7, 2009, Ms. Zhao was transferred to the Fourteenth Section of Shijiazhuang Women's Prison in Hebei Province. She is still on a hunger strike.
Written on August 21, 2009
