(Minghui.org) A woman in northeastern China was taken to a brainwashing center immediately after her release from prison. She had been incarcerated for four years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the communist regime.

Ms. Chen Yufeng from Shenyang, Liaoning Province was released from Liaoning Provincial Women’s Prison in Masanjia on April 14. Instead of being allowed to meet her waiting family, she was held until police officers and officials from the Dadong District Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) arrived and tried to take her to a “study center” (brainwashing facility), a form of illegal detention commonly imposed on Falun Gong practitioners.

A standoff ensued when Ms. Chen and her family resisted the officials' attempt to detain her. Her son said that they needed to take her to a hospital. Her father said that she did not commit a crime and had no reason to be arrested in the first place. After an hour, the PLAC officials allowed Ms. Chen to go home.

Arrest and Sentencing

Ms. Chen's husband, Mr. Liu Huayu, also practices Falun Gong. The couple and their guest, Ms. Liang Qizhen, were arrested at their home on April 15, 2012 by eight police officers.

In July 2013, Ms. Chen was sentenced to four years in prison and her husband to four and a half years.

Tortured in Labor Camps

Ms. Chen had been arrested several times before for practicing Falun Gong. She was held in the Longshan Forced Labor Camp, Zhangshi Brainwashing Center, and Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, all in Shenyang.

At these places, police officers beat her, seized her hair to bash her head against a wall, poured water into her ears, deprived her of sleep for ten nights, and forced her to go through brainwashing lectures in their attempts to make her renounce Falun Gong.

Guards also ordered non-Falun Gong inmates to control practitioners’ supply of daily necessities. When Ms. Chen had her period, inmates refused to give her sanitary napkins and simply left her to bleed on a chair.