Mr. Xin Baodong, male, 33, and his wife Ms. Gao Shuying, are both from Nanguan Village, Juyang Town, Sanhe City, Hebei Province. In the spring of 2000, because they practice Falun Gong, more than ten local policemen arrested the couple, and detained them for more than ten days. At the end of 2000, Mr. Xin still refused to renounce Falun Gong, so he was sentenced to one year of forced labor, during which he was brutally tortured, both physically and mentally. Over the next two years, Ms. Gao was also detained many times, because she refused to give up the practice of Falun Gong.

In the spring of 2002, not long after Mr. Xin was released from the labor camp, he was arrested again and detained at the Sanhe City Police Bureau Detention Center. The police encouraged the inmates there to beat him badly every day. On the ninth day of his detention, Mr. Xin was severely wounded, and sent to a hospital for emergency treatment. His body was black and blue all over, and eight of his ribs were broken. When his wife, Ms. Gao, went to the hospital to document the torture, and to take a picture of him, the police forced her to destroy the film. In February 2003, the couple fled from their home and became homeless to avoid further arrest and torture. Mr. Xin’s eighty-year-old mother was ill, had no one to take care of her and, in July 2003, passed away, leaving the couple’s two young children at home without anyone to care for them.

type=Case, Children; type=Case, Family; location=Hebei, Sanhe;