(Minghui.org) After Ms. Chen Yan, 44, was repeatedly tortured by the inmates during her eight-month detention for practicing Falun Gong, her condition is now serious. The detention center guards encouraged the inmates to abuse her and forbade her from appealing to end the abuse. In protest, she refused to appear in the three court hearings the judge scheduled.
Ms. Chen, of Benxi City, Liaoning Province, was arrested on July 14, 2024, after a community worker spotted her distributing informational materials which exposed the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong. The worker videotaped her and shared the clip with his supervisor, who then notified the police. Deputy chief Meng Xiangchong from the Hexi Police Station and his subordinates soon arrested Ms. Chen.
Meng and his officers raided Ms. Chen’s home when no one was around. They confiscated her bankbook, cash, cell phone, and other valuables.
Ms. Chen’s parents became worried when they could not get in touch with her. Her mother was still recovering from cancer surgery, so her 74-year-old father went to check on her. As soon as he saw the big mess in his daughter’s home, he knew she must have been arrested again for her faith. In 2015, she was sentenced to three years in prison and fired from her civil servant job because she practices Falun Gong.
The elderly man managed to find out who arrested his daughter and he went to the Hexi Police Station to seek her release and a list of confiscated items. Deputy chief Meng was very rude and turned him away.
Prosecutor Hou Rui of the Xihu District Procuratorate indicted Ms. Chen and forwarded her case to the Xihu District Court. Judge Wang Mian barred her non-lawyer defender from reviewing her case file or visiting her.
Ms. Chen’s lawyer was allowed to visit her at the Benxi City Detention Center on October 30, 2024, and learned that she was beaten three times on August 5 by four inmates who were instructed by the guards to abuse her.
The lawyer noticed that Ms. Chen was in low spirits, slow to respond, and appeared weak. He returned the next day for another meeting and was shocked when she had no recollection of their meeting the day before. She complained about heart palpitations and had blood in her sputum.
The Xihu District Court scheduled a hearing of Ms. Chen’s case for December 17, 2024. Her family and lawyer went to the court, but she refused to attend, because she was protesting guard Wang Naihan’s continually encouraging the inmates to beat her. Judge Wang canceled the session.
Another hearing was scheduled for January 15, 2025 but Ms. Chen refused to attend it. She said that the inmates beat her again in early January 2025 and she requested to meet with the prosecutor-in-residence at the detention center, but he refused to respond. She tried to prepare a written complaint, but the guards refused to provide her with a pen and paper. She was also concerned that her weak physical condition from the beatings wouldn’t allow her to testify in her own defense. The judge said he would give her another month to resolve the issues with the guards and he canceled the hearing for the second time.
Ms. Chen’s lawyer was notified on February 20, 2025 that the judge scheduled a hearing for the third time (exact date unknown). In protest, Ms. Chen again refused to attend it. She said that although she finally talked to the detention center’s prosecutor-in-residence, Che Dingding, in mid-January 2025, Che didn’t take any action against the guards and Ms. Chen hadn’t been able to talk to him again. Ms. Chen complained that she constantly faced being tortured by the inmates and the guards and the prosecutor-in-residence continued to ignore her. The judge then canceled the hearing for the third time.
Ms. Chen’s family is looking for avenues to seek justice for her.
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