(Minghui.org) Ms. Ma Jun, 68, was illegally arrested four times and sentenced to prison twice since July 20, 1999. She has been incarcerated in detention centers, brainwashing centers, and prisons for a total of 14 and a half years for refusing to renounce her faith in Falun Gong.
When the persecution of Falun Gong began, Ms. Ma was arrested on July 20, 1999, and held for 21 days. She was arrested again and held for nine days for speaking out for Falun Gong in Beijing on December 30 that same year.
Her third arrest took place on January 16, 2000. Ms. Ma went on hunger strike six times in her first two years of detention. On May 29, 2001, Chengguan District Court sentenced her to three years in prison without her family being present. She was taken to Luoguogou Women's Prison in November.
The day she was released from prison, January 16, 2003, the police picked her up and took her to a brainwashing center to try to "transform" her. She was handcuffed and hung in a solitary detention room four times for refusing to renounce her faith. She was detained for almost two and a half years in brainwashing centers.
Her latest arrest took place on February 24, 2006. Her home was also ransacked. Ms. Ma was detained in Lanzhou No. 1 Detention Center and then taken to Lanzhou Women's Prison in April 2007 to complete her 10-year term.
In prison, the guards instigated inmates to brutally torture her. Beginning in March 2009, they confined her to a small, damp, dark cell for a year and three months. Because of the poor conditions and torture, she developed rheumatism, deformed joints, heart disease, and eczema.
In October 2012, Ms. Ma was transferred to a unit designated to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners. On the first day, inmates pushed her down on the ground and severely beat her because she went beyond her restricted area. The unit chief had two drug trafficker-inmates to brutally beat her.
Ms. Ma was severely tortured on a daily basis. The criminals also verbally abused her and forced her to sit on a seat with the name of the founder of Falun Gong written on it.
Ms. Ma started to work at Jincheng Travel Service Company in Lanzhou City after she graduated from college in 1969. Due to multiple health problems, she retired from the company in 1992. After she started to practice Falun Gong in 1995, her ailments disappeared. She became healthy and found a job with a real estate company.
On March 18, 2002, Ms. Ma was fired from her job because she was sentenced to three years for practicing Falun Gong. The company also suspended her wages from December 1999 to March 2002.
She applied for her pension benefits in March 2015 after being released from prison, but Lanzhou City Social Security Bureau denied her application.
Related Articles:Steadfast in Falun Gong, Ms. Ma Jun Still Detained in Prison After Ten Years
Ms. Ma Jun Being Held in a Small, Dark Cell in Lanzhou City Women's Prison