Chen Zhenping: A Mother Imprisoned, Tortured
Zhaoyu Jins mother was sent in 2009 to prison for 8 years just for practicing Falun Gong. Amnesty International says she has been badly beaten and injected with harmful drugs.
Chen Zhenping, the mother of Finnish resident Zhaoyu Jin, was abducted from her home in Henan province in July 2008. Within a month, she was sent, after a secret trial, to a prison camp for eight years. Amnesty International (AI) considers Chen a prisoner of conscience and has taken up her case. In April 2010, AI reported that Chen had been badly tortured, subjected to regular beatings and forcibly injected with drugs.
The following are excerpts from AI appeals on Chen’s behalf since 2008:
“Falun Gong practitioner Chen Zhenping was arrested without a warrant on 9 July at her home in the city of Zhengzhou, Henan province. Her family have not been allowed to visit her, and it is unclear where she is now held. She is in grave danger of torture…
She was first held for 10 days at Matougang Village Detention Centre, and then moved to Zhengzhou City No.1 Detention Centre… According to a fellow inmate, Chen Zhenping has been held in a cell with over 30 people and forced to sleep on the floor. She was reported by a former cell-mate to have been forced to work up to 19 hours a day producing rugs, Q-tips and other goods, with strict production targets: if she did not meet these targets she was beaten and otherwise ill-treated.”
“Chen Zhenping was sentenced in August 2008, after a secret trial, to eight years imprisonment for ‘using a heretical organization to subvert the law.’ Chen Zhenping’s family fear that she is likely to be moved to a prison far from their home…
Chen Zhenping’s lawyer went to ask the Jingshui District People’s court in Zhengzhou, Henan province, about her case in November 2008. A court official told him that Falun Gong practitioners did not have the right to hire lawyers.
On 5 December the lawyer asked Chen’s 18-year-old daughter to go to the court and ask for the sentencing document. She made several attempts to get the document from the court and was repeatedly told to return at a later date. On 4 January, when she refused to leave the court without the document, a court employee punched, kicked her, pushed her to the ground and stamped on her chest until three other court employees intervened to stop her. The local Police have refused to investigate the incident.
“Imprisoned Falun Gong practitioner Chen Zhenping, who is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence in China … is believed to have been forcibly injected with drugs and subjected to regular beatings in prison. She remains at serious risk of further torture…
She is currently being held at Women’s No. 5 Prison, Henan Province, where approximately 200 Falun Gong practitioners are held.
A former prisoner who was recently released from the same prison reported that Chen Zhenping is being held in a tiny cell where she is watched around the clock by other inmates, many of whom are criminals and drug addicts. The former prisoner reported that Chen Zhenping was often not allowed to go to the toilet and was tied to a bed and beaten.
She was also forcibly injected with drugs and had been heard to cry ‘Don’t give me the shot. Don’t give me the shot. I don’t want to take the drug…’
Falun Gong inmates in the prison are subjected to broadcasts denouncing the Falun Gong and to high-pitched loud music on a daily basis unless they renounce their faith.”
