Husband Reports Abuse of Mao Hengfeng in Reeducation-Through-Labor Camp

Wu Xuewei (吴雪伟), husband of Shanghai petitioner Mao Hengfeng (毛恒凤), told Human Rights in China (HRIC) that Mao has been suffering serious physical abuse in the Anhui Provincial Women’s Reeducation-Through-Labor (RTL) Camp, where Mao is serving an 18-month sentence. Wu stated that Mao told him during a brief meeting at the camp on July 21 that the abuses include: frequent beatings carried out by inmates who were encouraged and directed by camp police officers; being hit on the head by a chair twice; being lifted and pulled by her arms and legs and thrown repeatedly against the floor; not being allowed to go to the bathroom or bathe.

In March 2010, Mao was ordered by Shanghai authorities to serve one-and-a-half years of RTL for “disturbing social order” by shouting slogans outside a Beijing Court.

She began serving in the Shanghai Women’s RTL Camp, but was transferred to Anhui on April 27, 2010, more than 600 kilometers from Shanghai.

Mao began petitioning in 1988 after being fired from her job for refusing to abort a second pregnancy. For her petition activies, she has been forced into psychiatric hospitals by the authorities many times, and suffered many types of abuse and torture while imprisoned in the Shanghai Women’s Prison.

The Chinese original of Wu Xuewei’s description of the mistreatment of Mao is available at: http://gb.hrichina.org/public/contents/19995.

For more information on Mao Hengfeng, see:

• “Shanghai Rights Activist Mao Hengfeng Starts Hunger Strike in Reeducation-Through-Labor Camp,” May 26, 2010
• “Shanghai Petitioner to Serve 18 Months of Reeducation-Through-Labor after Shouting Slogans,” March 9, 2010
• “Shanghai Petitioner, Beaten, Writes Letter to President Obama,” November 16, 2009
• “Petitioner Mao Hengfeng Has Been Detained after November Release from Prison,” January 13, 2009   
• “Mao Hengfeng, Petitioner on Family Planning Issues, Reports Continued Abuse in Prison,” September 16, 2008
• “About the Individual: Mao Hengfeng,” March 2008
• “About the Issue: The Olympics and the Right to Criticize,” March 2008
• “Spotlight: Women’s Rights and Reproductive Health in China,” March 2008
• “Petitioners Face Ongoing Abuse,” March 3, 2008
• “Mao Hengfeng Abused in Prison Again,” October 29, 2007
• “Mao Hengfeng Protests Abusive Confinement,” September 19, 2007
• “Mao Hengfeng Held in Abusive Conditions, Appeal Denied,” April 16, 2007
• “Mao Hengfeng Sentenced to 2-1/2 Years for Breaking Lamps,” January 16, 2007
• “Crackdown on Activists Leading up to June 4th,” May 26, 2006
• “Roundup of Shanghai Rights Activists on Eve of NPC Session,” February 27, 2006
• “Further Crackdown on Petitioner Mao Hengfeng and Others in Beijing and Shanghai,” January 3, 2006
• “Family Planning Opponent’s Sentence Extended,” January 4, 2005
• “Family Planning Opponent Subjected to Further Abuse,” November 24, 2004
• “One-Child Policy Opponent Tortured,” October 5, 2004