(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Haiyan from Heishan County, Liaoning Province, was illegally sentenced to two years forced labor just because she exercised her constitutional right to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong in Beijing. She suffered from brutal torture during the detention in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. On March 21, 2003, when her family brought her back home, she was already mentally traumatized and could not look after herself. There were clear scars on her head, hands and other parts of her body. She died unjustly on January 18, 2004.

Ms. Zhang Haiyan was 34 years old and lived in Wangjia Zirantun of Xiyou Village, Hujia Town, Heishan County. She started to practice Falun Gong in 1996 and benefited both physically and mentally.

In July 2001, Zhang Haiyan went to Beijing to appeal but was arrested by the Beijing police. The Hujia Town Police Station and the officials from her local village brought her back to her village. She was beaten by Police chief Zhang Dong, and he even extorted money from her family. Seeing that her family did not have much money, Wang Yubao, the party secretary of the village, brought several people to her farm in an attempt to harvest their Chinese sorghum crop and confiscate it for themselves. The family firmly resisted but Zhang Haiyan was taken away and then sent to the Heishan Detention Center. After more than two months, Zhang Haiyan was illegally sentenced to forced labor for two years, and was then transferred to the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp where she received further persecution.

According to inside sources, while Zhang Haiyan was detained she refused to renounce her belief in Falun Gong and staged a hunger strike to protest her illegal detention. Because of this, she was cuffed and hung up [1], tied with ropes, and brutally beaten. The police forced her to give up her belief, and the brutal tortures of over two years had seriously damaged her both physically and traumatized her psychologically. On March 21, 2003, when she was brought back home by her family, she was already mentally traumatized and could not look after herself. There were clear scars on her head, hands and other parts of her body. She died unjustly on January 18, 2004.

[1] Cuffed and hung up: With both hands cuffed, both feet off or only toes touching the ground, one is hung onto the basketball support or the beam of the house with the handcuff.  The hands and arms will soon become paresthetic and numb.

Posting date: 5/6/2004
Original article date: 5/6/2004
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/4/21/72878.html

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