(Minghui.org) Mr. Ma Zhenyu, an electrical engineer, was on a business trip in Beijing working on a ten-million-yuan contract for his institute in May 1999, just two months before the Chinese Communist Party launched the nationwide campaign to eradicate his spiritual belief, Falun Gong.
He had no idea that the persecution that took him by surprise would turn his life upside down. He didn't have a chance to visit his mother on that business trip, and the next time he saw her was ten years later, after he was released from seven years in prison.
Because he refused to give up his belief, Mr. Ma was fired from his post as the chief engineer of the 14th Research Institute of China Electronic Technology Group Corporation in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. He was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for a total of 8.5 years. He had to go into hiding to avoid arrest.
Mr. Ma was arrested again on September 19, 2017, in the latest round of arrests and harassment of Falun Gong practitioners in Nanjing that began in August 2017. He is now in the Qinhuai District Detention Center.
Mr. Ma once said, “In the face of non-stop persecution, you can either be strong and stand up against it, or you can give in. Living in such a totalitarian state, you have to put your life on the line to uphold your faith and your principles. Falun Dafa gives me courage and strength to persevere, no matter how hard the situation.”
Mr. Ma Zhenyu started practicing Falun Gong in 1996 to improve his health. The Falun Gong principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance helped him to become more open-minded and considerate, both at home and at work. Enthusiastic to introduce the practice to more people, Mr. Ma became the volunteer coordinator of the Nanjing Falun Gong exercise site.
When the persecution began on July 20, 1999, Mr. Ma was arrested with four other Falun Gong coordinators in Nanjing.
When Mr. Ma returned home in September 1999 after two months of detention, his home had been ransacked. Many of his Falun Gong items and valuable collections had been confiscated by the police.
In detention, he was subjected to intensive brainwashing. The authorities attempted to force him to write statements renouncing Falun Gong and attacking its founder.
Although Mr. Ma was allowed to go back to work in January 2000, he was demoted from his position and forbidden to leave Nanjing.
Similar to Mr. Ma, dozens of Falun Gong practitioners working at the research institution were forced to attend brainwashing sessions and demoted at work. Practitioner Mr. Zhang Yulong was held in a mental hospital. Another practitioner, Mr. Gu Pizhong, a top leader at the institute, passed away as a result of the stress exerted by the provincial 610 Office.
In November 2000, Mr. Ma was arrested again and sentenced to seven years. He was detained at the Nanjing Detention Center for two years and then transferred to Suzhou Prison, where he was subjected to constant brainwashing. The inmates tortured him, attempting to force him to give up his faith. Both the police and the inmates received incentives for taking part in the persecution.
Mr. Ma held a hunger strike to protest. The police ordered several big and strong inmates to throw him in the air and let him fall on the ground. They repeated this several times.
When Mr. Ma continued to refuse to renounce his belief, the police physically punished all the inmates in order to incite hatred for Mr. Ma.
While Mr. Ma was imprisoned, his family was also implicated. His 10-year-old daughter was not allowed to attend public schools in Nanjing, and had to transfer to a private school in Suzhou City. His wife was forced to divorce him, and his father-in-law was also fired from his job.
When Mr. Ma was released from prison in 2007, he'd lost his job and didn't have a home to go back to. He had to move often to avoid the police. Even so, he didn't enjoy his freedom for very long. On April 30, 2009, about 18 months after he was released, he was arrested again.
After that, Mr. Ma was repeatedly arrested and tortured while detained.
During an arrest on May 26, 2011, the head of the Nanjing 610 Office, Xiao Ningjian, and other officers beat Mr. Ma and interrogated him in the police station. His heart was severely damaged during this round of interrogation.
Mr. Ma was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor later on September 19, 2011. The detention center twice refused to admit him because of his heart problem. Although the detention center staff wanted to send him home, the police insisted on holding him. They force-fed him with unknown drugs and bribed the detention center officials. Mr. Ma was later admitted to Fangqiang Forced Labor Camp.
Engineer Mr. Ma Zhenyu Interrogated at Xiaguan Detention CenterMr. Ma Zhenyu Detained for the Fifth TimeSeveral Dafa Practitioners from Nanjing Fourteenth Research Institute, Jiangsu Province Persecuted