Woman Seized by Police at the End of Her Wrongful Prison Term, Her Family Beaten on the Street for Trying to Rescue Her

(Minghui.org) The family of Ms. Yang Li, a Changchun City, Jilin Province resident, went to pick her up at a local detention center on December 16, 2021 after she finished serving a one-year term for refusing to give up her belief in Falun Gong. When they arrived, to their shock and horror, they watched a group of police officers push her into a police car and drive away.

Ms. Yang’s husband followed them in his own car. He stopped the police car at an intersection. Infuriated, four officers, including Jiang Tiecong, Teng Yunsheng of the Hongqijie Police Station and an agent of the 610 Office, got out, grabbed him and beat him. When his brother and sister-in-law came over to stop the police, they were also beaten and his sister-in-law was injured.

The police took both Ms. Yang and her husband to the Hongqijie Police Station and ordered them, unsuccessfully, to renounce their shared faith in Falun Gong, which has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Yang sustained serious injuries from the abuse at the detention center and her husband was injured from the beating on that day. Their family took videos of them while they signed a police document regarding the return of confiscated items.

Ms. Yang, a 44-year-old former paralegal, was arrested at her home on December 16, 2020. She was taken to the Changchun City No.4 Detention Center the next day. Her lawyer was informed on October 12, 2021 that the Chaoyang District Court sentenced her to one year and a 5,000 yuan fine.

Ms. Yang was first held in room 303 at the detention center. Inmates Liang Qianqian, Xiao Hong and Liu Yan beat her. On January 25, 2021, seven days after she was transferred to the room 103, the guards began to force her to stand from 6:30 a.m. to 9:20 p.m. This daily form of torture continued until March 31.

The guards refused to provide her with a blanket at night, giving her only a bed sheet despite the winter cold. (Changchun is a city in China's far north)

She refused to wear a prison inmates' uniform, so they stripped off her clothes and got them soaking wet. Then they forced into the inmates’ uniform, a short sleeve top and a thin pair of pants.

During the day, while the other inmates were wearing down jackets, the guards opened the window in the unheated room to freeze Ms. Yang. At other times, inmates Hu Rong and Guo Shuang forced her to take cold showers. The inmates also put her food on the ground and wouldn't allow her to use the dining table. The eggs given out every other day and the fruits provided weekly were also suspended for Ms. Yang. She wasn’t allowed to buy daily necessities or extra food herself either.

There are three wards at the Changchun City No.4 Detention Center and each ward has six cells. Right now there are at least seven other practitioners held there, including Ms. Ma Xiurong in room 103; Ms. Yu Aiji in room 105; Ms. Cui Yuqiu in room 201; Ms. Xu Lina in room 203; and Ms. Li Guiling, Ms. Yin Jun and Ms. Zhao Shanying in room 205.

Ms. Zhao is Ms. Yang’s mother-in-law. She was arrested on November 26, 2020 and later sentenced to 1.5 years with 5,000 yuan fine.

Related report:

Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law Arrested Weeks Apart for Their Shared Faith