Who this record covers
杨金德 (Yang Jinde, born September 29, 1968) is a businessman from Nanyang in Henan province — the controller and chairman of Nanyang Aoben Auto Sales Co., Ltd., a private car dealership. He was a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, a member of the fourth Nanyang municipal political consultative conference, and a former integrity supervisor for Nanyang's political-legal system. In 2011 he was convicted in a criminal case that followed a dispute with a local court and his subsequent petitioning in Beijing; his final sentence was 18 years' imprisonment.
Case history
On September 27, 2010, after a Wolong District Court in Nanyang deducted more than 80,000 yuan from his company's bank account over a civil dispute — an enforcement action he believed was unlawful because the order had not been served on his company — Yang organized several dozen company employees to protest at the courthouse that evening. Clashes with court police, who used tear gas, followed. The next day he led a convoy of company vehicles and more than 40 employees to Beijing to petition against the court. After a Wolong district vice-head persuaded the group back from Beijing, Yang was seized by police in Fangcheng County on October 12, 2010, and placed under formal criminal detention on October 13; more than 20 of his employees were also detained.
Conviction and sentence
On July 5, 2011, the Tanghe County Court in Nanyang tried Yang and 22 others as a 23-defendant case. On July 30 the court convicted him on six charges — leading an organized criminal group, gathering crowds to disturb social order, obstructing witnesses, forced transactions, picking quarrels and provoking trouble, and obstructing official business — imposing a combined 21 years and 6 months, executed as 20 years, plus a 400,000-yuan fine. On appeal, the Nanyang Intermediate Court ruled on November 3, 2011: five charges, 18 years' imprisonment, a 400,000-yuan fine, with the term running to September 26, 2028.
Torture allegations and official denials
Yang's lawyer and family have alleged that he was held in a police-dog training base after his arrest and subjected to repeated torture — including being hung in stress positions, electric shocks, and beatings — leaving him with leg-muscle atrophy, loss of vision in one eye, hearing loss in one ear, and periods of paralysis in detention. They have described roughly fifteen forms of abuse. The Henan police have denied the claims, stating that investigations and medical examinations found no evidence of torture during the case; the court ruled that the torture allegation was not established. The allegations come from Yang, his family, and his lawyers; the denials come from the authorities handling the case. Neither side's account is independently verified.
Recorded status
The final judgment imposed 18 years, term to September 26, 2028. The latest dated custody-location evidence is the prisoners-of-conscience database entry (entered March 4, 2022), which places him at the Henan Provincial No. 2 Prison in Xinxiang. No later dated source confirms his current location. This page does not assert where he is held today.
Identification method
The Issue 131 roster's Chinese edition places 杨金德 in its sentenced-to-18-years group. An independent prisoner database record gives the Chinese name 杨金德 with the romanization "Yang Jinde," the Nanyang case details, the October 2010 detention, and a final 18-year sentence — matching the roster band. The 18-year figure is the second-instance (final) sentence; earlier reporting that cited 20 or 21.5 years referred to the first-instance outcome. Of 4,372 records in the database, exactly one matches this name.
What this record does not claim
This page does not state that the torture allegations are proven, nor that the denials are true — it reports what each side has said. It does not assert his current place of detention beyond the latest dated evidence. It does not treat a roster listing or a database entry as a court record.
Sources: Chinese Human Rights Defenders' Prisoners of Conscience database; Chinese Political Prisoner Concern (CPPC 01112); Rights Defense Network Issue 131 monthly report (August 31, 2026); NPR reporting (2011). See the Media Profile & Archive for the full source chronology and evidentiary limits.
Media Profile & Archive: 杨金德 (Yang Jinde) — Media Profile & Archive