( Minghui.org )
Summary of Key Persecution Facts:
Name: Duan Huiqin (段慧琴)
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown
Address: Dongli District, Tianjin
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 20, 2012
Most Recent Place of Detention: Banqiao Forced Labor Camp) (板桥劳教所)
City: Tianjin
Persecution Suffered: Detention, forced labor, forced sitting on a small bench for an extended time, long-term forced standing, brutal beatings, starvation, sleep deprivation, stripped naked in freezing weather.
Ms. Duan Huiqin is a Falun Gong practitioner from the Dongli District of Tianjin. She was arrested in May 2012, then taken to a forced labor camp for one year. In the Banqiao Forced Labor Camp, she was tortured by being made to sit on a small stool, brutally beaten, starved, deprived of sleep, and exposed to extreme cold.
Ms. Duan was clarifying the facts about Falun Gong to people at the Sunday Farmer's Market in Zhanggui Village on May 20, 2012, when she was arrested by two plainclothes officers in the crowd. At the Fengnian Village Police Station, two officers told her that she would released after signing her name on a blank interrogation record. After she signed it, however, she was immediately taken to the Dongli Detention Center.
The Fengnian Village Police Station tried to admit Ms. Duan to the Banqiao Forced Labor Camp on June 18, even though she had severe diabetes, as well as cardiac and renal failure. The labor camp refused to accept her because of her health. On June 28, director of the Fengnian Village Police Station (a man in his forties), through his personal connection with the labor camp, convinced the camp to accept Ms. Duan for a year of forced labor.
Knowing that Ms. Duan suffered from multiple health problems, the labor camp still used prisoners to monitor and torture her. Prisoners Ma Yundi (23, a prostitute) and Liu Suqin (in her fifties, a thief) made Ms. Duan sit on a small stool for 18 hours per day. After she became too ill to sit, she was forced to stand.
Ms. Duan persisted in her belief during the first two months of torture. The labor camp had two more prisoners torture her on August 29, 2012. They kicked and beat Ms. Duan, and forced her into a room covered with photos of Master Li Hongzhi. They covered her mouth, pinched her, and cursed Falun Dafa. She was forced to sit on the floor, which was covered with the photos. Mr. Duan was overcome by the sustained violence and her illness, and reluctantly copied pre-written statements, promising to give up her belief.
Soon after, however, she announced that she would not give up her belief, and refused to wear the red badge indicating that she was a "reformed" Falun Gong practitioner. The labor camp then transferred her to Group No. 1 and had prisoners Zhao Chengjuan (40, a prostitute) and Ren Yanyan (24, detained for pyramid scheme) torture her. Ms. Duan was brutally beaten, starved, and deprived of sleep.
Prisoner Ma Yundi stripped Ms. Duan in August 2012, and would not allow her to use the bathroom. The guards did not intervene, and a guard who passed by even humiliated her.
On an extremely cold day in January 2013, Officer Liu Huiyu (about 40) ordered prisoners to open all the windows. Ms. Duan was stripped, and was threatened that photos and videos of her naked would be published. She said, “I am not afraid of that. You are shameless.” Liu Huiyu then ordered prisoners to stuff Ms. Duan's mouth with socks.
When she was forced to stand for an extended period of time, officer Meng Jing, 37, who was known as “the most wicked officer in the Banqiao Forced Labor Camp,” savagely kicked Ms. Duan's feet, causing them to swell severely. Her entire right foot turned a black-purple. Meng also ordered prisoner Xiao Ye (38, a prostitute from Tianjin City) to torture her. Ms. Duan had difficulty walking at that time.
Two months before Ms. Duan was scheduled to leave the labor camp, the guards frequently forced her to sit for extended periods of time, and forcibly grabbed her hand to try to make her write a statement promising to give up her belief. She was brutally beaten when she firmly resisted.
