A woman campaigning against China's stern one-child policy is suffering brutal treatment in detention, a New York-based rights group said yesterday.
Mao Hengfeng, a Shanghai resident and a mother of two, is currently serving an 18-month labor camp sentence and has been subjected to torture, Human Rights in China said in a statement.
"While in detention Mao has been bound hand and foot and suspended in mid-air, and has been subjected to severe beatings to her limbs and abdomen," the group said, citing unnamed sources.
"In addition, police are alleged to have assigned two criminals to monitor her activities in detention," it said.
Mao was sentenced to one and a half years of re-education through labor -- an administrative procedure that bypasses the courts -- in April after petitioning the government for years to defend her rights.
Her clashes with the authorities date back to the late 1980s, when she broke Chinese law by insisting on giving birth to a second child despite severe pressure to have an abortion.
After her second delivery, she was dismissed from her job at a soap factory and entered into a lengthy court battle for her right to work.
At the time of a key court hearing, she was seven months pregnant with her third child and was told by the trial judge he would rule in her favor if she agreed to abort the child, the group said.
She had an abortion against her wishes, but in the end the court ruled that because she had contravened China's family planning policy, the factory had a right to dismiss her, the group said.
Mao subsequently embarked on a 15-year struggle for her right to work and other basic rights.
During the course of numerous petitions she has been frequently detained and on several occasions has been forcibly committed to psychiatric institutions, according to the group.
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