Name: Fan Zhen (范珍)
Gender: Female
Age: 67
Address: Fuping County, Baoding City, Hebei Province
Occupation: Retired
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 20, 2003
Most recent place of detention: Local Police Department (公安局)
City: Fuping County
Province: Hebei Province
Persecution Suffered: Detention, Home Ransacked, Forced Labor, Extortion, Force-feedings.
(Clearwisdom.net) (By a correspondent from Hebei Province) On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. One day that November, Ms. Fan Zhen was engaged in business activities when Zhou Qiulai, secretary of the Regulations and Discipline Division of the local police department, along with Ma Baozhong, head of the Political Security Division, forced her to return home. She had left her keys inside her home and could not open the gate, so police officers jumped over the wall around her yard, then ransacked her home without finding any Dafa materials. When her husband heard about this situation, he went home and questioned the policemen about the justification for ransacking his home. The officers told him, "You must keep an eye on your wife and don't let her go to Beijing." Her husband replied, "My home was burglarized four times this year, and we lost many things. We reported this to you, but nobody cared to investigate, but now you are so proactive when it comes to Falun Gong." The policemen had no reply, and left.
On October 30, 2000, Ms. Fan Zhen went to Shijiazhuang City, but was arrested and taken to the police station by local officers including Zhou Qiulai, Ma Baozhong and Wang Sanhai. The policemen attempted to force her to sign a detention warrant. Ms. Fan said, "What law did I violate? Why are you detaining me?" When she refused to sign the warrant, Zhou Qiulai forcefully grabbed her hair and said, "We've wanted to arrest you for quite some time, but couldn't until now."
Ms. Fan was subsequently taken to the detention center, and the officials confiscated all of her personal belongings. Seven detainees were forced to sleep on a single wood board, leaving no room to turn their bodies. During the day, she was forced to perform manual labor, which included rolling paper for firecrackers.
The police department officials didn't allow her family visitation rights, and employed several methods to threaten her family members. One day, the policemen told her family that she would be sentenced to a prison term. The next day, they said that she would be sentenced to forced labor. Consequently, Ms. Fan's family was constantly worried, and were forced to pay bribes to various authorities. During Ms. Fan's two month detainment period, her family paid nearly 2,000 yuan for various officials' meals. The police also extorted 4,000 yuan cash before releasing Ms. Fan.
At 1 p.m. one day in May 2001, policeman Ma Baozhong led two officers and broke into Ms. Fan's home, and attempted to take her to the local brainwashing center. Ms. Fan resisted. The policemen were in contact with Qi Guiliang, head of the 610 Office. The number of policemen on the scene increased, until after 5 p.m. that day, there were over 20 officers blocking the entrance to Ms. Fan's home. In the end, the policemen did not succeed, since several practitioners simultaneously resisted all attempts to arrest them. A month later, a source indicated that officials were planning another attempt to arrest her. Ms. Fan was forced to leave her home to avoid further persecution.
In mid March 2002, Ms. Fan Zhen traveled to a rural area with a fellow practitioner, to clarify the truth about Falun Gong. They were reported to the local authorities, and policemen Ma Baozhong and Wang Sanhai arrested them, handcuffed them to each other, pushed them into a police vehicle, and took them to the local detention center. Early the next morning, the officers ordered a dozen male inmates to hold the fellow practitioner down, wrapped her in window curtain sheets, then took her to a forced labor camp in Baoding City.
Ms. Fan went on a hunger strike at the detention center for nearly 20 days, then was force-fed by guards. Whenever she was force-fed, several detention center officials and inmates dragged her to the edge of her bed, then two people held her legs, two held her arms and one held her head. Then, they sealed her mouth, while inserting a thick tube into her nose and down her throat. Unknown substances were forced down her throat. After they were finished, they pulled out the tube, which caused bleeding and severe pain. Ms. Fan continues to experience health complications due to the force-feeding.
At around 10 p.m. on March 20, 2003, several policemen broke into Ms. Fan's home, ransacked her home, and confiscated several Falun Gong books and materials. The officers forced her into a police vehicle and took her to the police station. Early the next morning, she was taken to the Baoding forced labor camp. A medical checkup at the camp indicated that she was suffering from high blood pressure, so the officials refused to admit her. The county policemen took her back, then released her.
During the past several years under the CCP's persecution policies, the local authorities have continually harassed and persecuted Ms. Fan and her family, day and night. Her husband was emotionally traumatized, and whenever he hears police sirens or the noise of a running motor, he gets worried and fears that something bad is about to happen. Since they could not live a normal life at home, they went to Ms. Fan's in-law's home. However, the police officers followed them to her in-law's home in Shijianzhuang City. Just prior to the CCP's 16th National Conference, the policemen forced Ms. Fan to return to Fuping County, leaving her father-in-law deeply concerned. Officials continue to harass the family, making them live in fear.