Ms. Yuan Pingjun, 40s, Hebei

Name: Yuan Pingjun (???)
Gender: Female
Age:  40s
Occupation:  Seamstress
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 2, 2010
Date of Most Recent Release: Died in custody
Date of Death: August 10, 2010
Province: Hebei
City: Shijiazhuang
Address: Telecommunication Bureau Family Housing 5-1-101, Yongtaizhong Street, Xinhua District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hebei Province Legal Education Training Center (???”????????”)

Case Details:

Ms. Yuan Pingjun was abducted from her home on August 2. By August 10, eight days later, she had died in custody.

According to sources inside China, Yuan was abducted from her home shortly after 9am on August 2, when officers from Ning’an Police Station burst into the house. They ransacked the home, confiscated her son’s computer, took Yan’s Falun Dafa books, and extorted 550 yuan from the family. The previous day, Yuan was apparently followed home by police after visiting the relatives of Xia Junying, a Falun Gong practitioner and close friend who had been detained on July 15.  

After her detention, Ms. Yuan was confined to the Hebei Province Legal Education Training Center. “Legal Education Training Center” is a common euphemism for facilities where Falun Gong practitioners are taken for brainwashing efforts to force them to renounce their belief. Such efforts routinely involve physical violence and torture.

A week and a half later, guards informed her family that Yan had died around August 10, claiming it was due to a fall from the third floor of the building. It is a common phenomenon for Chinese security agencies to inform family members that a Falun Gong practitioner who died in custody had “fallen from a building” or “died of a heart attack.” However, eyewitness testimony or other evidence has often revealed that the individual in fact died from torture or other physical abuse.

Police forbade Yuan’s family from setting up an arrangement to mourn her death. According to acquaintances of Yuan’s, the woman was in good health before her detention. Additional investigations continue into the full details surrounding her death.

Additional details:

Falun Dafa Information Center, “Falun Gong Practitioner Dies in Custody Eight Days after Abduction,” August 27, 2010.

Individuals related to Yuan’s case:
Zhi Qiang, Ning’an Police Station Director: 86-311-87043130 (Office), 86-13932155100 (Cell)
Ren Xuanjun, Ms. Yan Pingjun case officer: 86-13722792211 (Cell)
Liu Fuzhong, Ms. Xia Junyng’s local community police officer: 86-13833453776 (Cell)