Name: Yan Yuhua (闫玉华)
Gender: Female
Age: 43
Address: Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 20, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Nanjing City Women’s Prison (南京女子监狱)
City: Nanjing
Province: Jiangsu
Persecution Suffered: Detention, interrogation, brutal beating, imprisonment, solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, long-term standing, having cold water poured over her, starved, not allowed to bathe, denied family visits, extortion, brainwashing, forced labor, home ransacked
(Clearwidom.net) Ms. Yan Yuhua was arrested by police and maltreated in detention centers, forced labor camps, and prisons due to her refusal to give up her belief in Falun Gong. On November 20, 2011, she was arrested and sent to the Nanjing Women's Prison. This happened less than one month after she returned home. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
Her parents and teenage son are now on their own. In addition, her son was expelled from school and her parents’ pension was suspended. The family is ready to go to the 610 Office in Nanjing to demand her freedom.
Arrested and imprisoned after petitioning in Beijing
In October 2006, Yan Yuhua went to Beijing alone to petition the government for the right to practice. She was arrested by plainclothes police in Tiananmen Square. The police confiscated the Falun Gong truth-clarification materials and banners that she carried. Seven or eight plainclothes officers grabbed her and drove her to the Tiananmen Square Police Station, where she was detained and interrogated. Her photo taken against her will, and because she did not cooperate, she was beaten. She tolerated the pain and told the police the truth about Falun Gong, but they didn't listen. She was detained for 12 days. The police did not let the practitioners do the exercises in the detention center, but Ms. Yan insisted on telling the people she met the facts about Falun Gong. Finally she was sent to Nanjing Women’s Prison.
Personnel from the Nanjing 610 Office and Women’s Prison pressured her to give up practicing Falun Gong and to sign the guarantee statement. During this time, she was isolated in solitary confinement. Several times she was deprived of sleep or required to stand for extended periods of time. In addition, freezing water was sometimes poured over her. Moreover she was sometimes deprived of food, baths, family visits, and daily necessities.
In December 2008, after she had been detained for more than two years, her parents, who were over 70, visited her in prison. She told them that she would never give up practicing Dafa. On hearing this, the police standing beside her shouted, “Then you can never get out. You have already lost your job. If you don't give up, you will lose your house and savings.” Finally, after extorting 10,000 yuan from her parents, the prison let her parents bail her out.
In a forced labor camp for two years
In May 2009, Ms. Yan was arrested by the police in Nantong when she was making truth-clarification materials. Later she was sent to Nantong Detention Center (labor camp). There she was forced to wear earphones and listen to slander about Falun Gong and Master. Several guards took turns beating and cursing her. Every day she was taken to a classroom to be brutally brainwashed and pressured to “transform.” She was circled by several brainwashing “re-educators,” who kept slandering Falun Gong. They created an atmosphere of terror to force her to give up her faith. As a matter of fact, every Falun Gong practitioner in this detention center was detained alone and pressured in a variety of ways, in attempts to force them to give up their belief in Falun Gong.
Yan Yuhua was detained in the labor camp for two and half years. During this time, the police continued to threaten her family. They even went to her son’s school and attempted to seize him in order to force her to give up Falun Gong. Fortunately, the teachers and other kind people prevented this from happening.
In Nanjing Women's Prison once again
On November 20, 2011, less than a month after Yan Yuhua had returned home, several police officers broke into her house and rummaged around. When she asked why, the lead officer lied, saying that they saw her distributing truth-clarification materials again. But she actually hadn't been anywhere during that time. The police stole some of her personal property, including a laptop, a printer, a copier, truth-clarification files and CDs, and so on. The police claimed that these items were “evidence.”
Ms. Yan Yuhua was once again incarcerated in Nanjing Women's Prison. In order to increase the intensity of the brainwashing, prison officials put her in the so-called "critical group" in custody district two. This “critical group” was a temporary arrangement devoted to brainwashing and persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. In that group, Ms. Yan was deprived of sleep and water to drink, but her tormentors did not achieve their goal of “transforming” her. She was later transferred out of the group, although she was still in custody district two.
In December, her family went to the prison to see her, but they were told that Yan Yuhua was no longer there. Her family asked where she was, but the guards, with fear in their eyes, said they did not know. The family later found Han Yanmei, a police officer in custody district two in Nanjing Women’s Prison, and asked her, but she just threatened them. So Yan Yuhua’s current whereabouts are unknown.
Information related to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners at Nanjing:
Nanjing Women's Prison: +86-25-52353911, +86-25-52890543
E-mail: [email protected]; Webmaster’s e-mail: [email protected]
Nanjing Women's Prison Custody District Two: +86 -25-52353952, +86 -25-52353942, +86 -25-52352204
Han Yanmei, police officer
