Sichuan Ya'an Yucheng District citizen Chen Mingyan, sentenced to four and a half years, released after completing her sentence on August 10, 2026

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On August 11, 2026, this website learned that Chen Mingyan, a citizen and human rights defender from Yucheng District, Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, who was sentenced to four and a half years, was released after completing her sentence on August 10, 2026.

Chen Mingyan was arrested again in 2022 for consistently and actively safeguarding individuals' lawful rights and helping vulnerable individuals participate in rights defense activities. She was subsequently sentenced to four and a half years in prison for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." On the morning of August 10, 2026, Chen Mingyan was released after completing her sentence and returned home.

Chen Mingyan's profile: Born on September 9, 1976, she is a rights defender from Ya'an, Sichuan Province, a resident of No. 34 Wu'an Street, Yucheng District, Ya'an City, and a petitioner seeking redress.

She previously petitioned after a court rendered an unlawful judgment over her child's maintenance payments, and was subsequently illegally detained and held several times by the authorities because of her repeated petitions;

From March 2009 to March 2012, she was successively detained by Beijing police for five days, criminally detained by Ya'an police for 30 days, held beyond the statutory period for 94 days by Ya'an police on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," and forcibly subjected to a psychiatric evaluation by Yucheng District police in Ya'an. The evaluation concluded that Chen Mingyan had paranoid schizophrenia, after which she was sent to a psychiatric hospital and held there for as long as seven months. After being discharged, she not only defended her own rights but, because of her kind nature and willingness to help petitioners in distress, also provided money and goods over a long period to petitioners and rights-defending citizens detained at the Ya'an Detention Center, frequently received visiting family members, and actively contacted human rights lawyers from outside the area to intervene in petitioners' cases, thereby growing into an active rights-defending citizen;

On December 21, 2015, she was criminally detained by Yucheng District police in Ya'an on suspicion of "using a cult organization to undermine implementation of the law" merely for forwarding a picture in a WeChat group about the Falun Gong global lawsuit against Jiang Zemin;

On January 25, 2016, she was formally arrested on the same charge; on November 2, 2016, Yucheng District police in Ya'an changed the compulsory measure and placed her under residential surveillance; on May 16, 2017, she was taken into custody and arrested by Yucheng District police in Ya'an for accompanying her defense lawyer to the Hanyuan County Procuratorate in Ya'an City to review the case files in the case of Tianwang volunteer Jiang Chengfen;

On June 1, 2017, the Yucheng District People's Court of Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, sentenced her at first instance to four years in prison and a fine of 3,000 yuan for "using a cult organization to undermine implementation of the law"; she appealed because she disagreed with the judgment, but the second instance nevertheless upheld the original judgment;

She was released after completing her sentence on April 11, 2020; according to reports, during her detention she was frequently subjected to verbal abuse, beatings, and torture such as being put in "turtle shackles" by detention-center guards. She had previously been detained at the Ya'an Detention Center in Sichuan.

Chen Mingyan was arrested again in 2022 for consistently and actively safeguarding individuals' lawful rights and helping vulnerable individuals participate in rights defense activities. She was subsequently sentenced to four and a half years in prison for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." On the morning of August 10, 2026, Chen Mingyan was released after completing her sentence and returned home.