After Two Labor Camp Terms and a Lengthy Prison Term, Woman Faces Sentence for Her Faith Again

(Minghui.org) A Tonghe County, Heilongjiang Province resident stood trial on June 6, 2022 for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Ma Jiying, 68, was arrested on October 19, 2020, while going through security check at the Fangzheng County Train Station. The railroad security confiscated the laptop in her bag, as well as some computer memory cards and informational materials about Falun Gong. The police also ransacked her home later in the day and confiscated her two cell phones and 30 Falun Gong booklets. She was held at the Harbin City No. 2 Detention Center for a month and then released.

The Harbin City Court summoned her several times entering 2022. After a neighbor recently reported her for practicing Falun Gong, the police installed surveillance cameras outside of her home.

She appeared at the Harbin City Court on June 6. Other details about her case remain unclear.

Past Persecution

Since the onset of the persecution, Ms. Ma has been repeatedly arrested for upholding her faith. She was given two labor camp terms for a total of four years and also sentenced to twelve years. She endured many brutal torture methods. Only days after she was released from the second labor camp term, her husband divorced her.

Arrests and Harassment

Several village officials arrested Ms. Ma at her neighbor’s home in September 1999. She was taken to the village government and forced to attend a criticism session of Falun Gong. Although she refused to read statements smearing Falun Gong, the local TV station recorded her attendance and played that in the evening news.

As soon as Ms. Ma returned from working in the fields on the evening of October 25, 2000, two officers broke into her home and ordered her to renounce Falun Gong. She didn’t comply. The officers then reported her. Six others soon came and stayed at her home, trying to pressure her. They didn’t leave until 11 p.m.

Several village officials harassed Ms. Ma again on the early morning of October 26, 2000 and tried to force her to renounce Falun Gong. She insisted that she wouldn’t do it, only to be arrested and taken to the Tonghe County Detention Center in the afternoon. She was held there for 16 days and extorted 2,000 yuan.

During the time she was detained, she saw several other practitioners, including Mr. Kong Xiangwei, his wife and mother, as well as Mr. Li Jiucheng and his wife, who were all arrested for going to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. They were each extorted between 10,000 to 30,000 yuan before being released.

Ms. Ma managed to set off to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on the evening of December 13, 2000, despite the tight surveillance of her. She arrived at Tiananmen Square on February 16, 2001. At that time, practitioners coming from around the country showed up at the Tiananmen Square one after another, only to be arrested and taken away by the police.

Before Ms. Ma did anything, an officer came over and asked her whether she practiced Falun Gong. She didn’t answer him. He then asked whether Falun Gong is good. As she said yes, she was arrested and taken to the police car.

Ms. Ma was held at three detention facilities, before being taken to the Tonghe County Detention Center. The authorities attempted to extort 8,000 yuan from her family to pay for the travel expense of officers who went to Beijing to take her back, but her family refused to comply.

Two Labor Camp Terms

After twenty days at a local detention center, Ms. Ma was taken to the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp to serve a one-year term. As she didn’t renounce Falun Gong, the guards handcuffed her behind her back and then to the heating pipes overnight. She was unable to stand up or squat.

As Ms. Ma remained firm in her faith, the guards hung her up by the wrists for three hours. Many other practitioners who refused to renounce Falun Gong were also subjected to the same torture. Some were hung up for days and three were tortured to death as a result.

Torture reenactment: hung up by the wrists

Ms. Ma shared a room with 35 other inmates. Due to the filthy living environment, they all developed scabies. Some had severe conditions on their hands such that they couldn’t even hold chopsticks.

After nearly a year at the labor camp, Ms. Ma was released on medical parole in February 2002.

Two months later, on April 12, 2002, before she got up, two plainclothes officers broke in and confiscated her Falun Gong books, informational materials and exercise music tapes. As soon as Ms. Ma had her breakfast, another officer came and ordered her to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. She rejected him and was arrested and taken to the Tonghe County Detention Center again.

Ms. Ma held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards forced her to wear 55-lb shackles for a week. They also beat and verbally abused her after she was reported for doing Falun Gong exercises.

Ms. Ma was reported again in May 2002 for teaching others to sing songs about Falun Gong. Teng Zhenxin, the head of the detention center, brought her to his office, slapped her in the face and hit her head against the wall. Her face became swollen as a result. He also forced her to wear 22-lb shackles for another twenty days.

As the weather warmed up, the guards still forced Ms. Ma to wear the thick jacket and pants that she wore during the arrest. She had lice growing on her. Yet the guards turned a blind eye to it and they also arranged for mentally-ill inmates to torture her.

Three months later, Ms. Ma was given three years of forced labor on charges of “disrupting social order.”

As soon as she was taken to the Wanjia Forced Labor Camp on August 1, 2002, the inmates kicked her in her lower body, pinched her inner thighs and hit her in the chest. They also tied Ms. Ma and another practitioner Ms. Zhao Xiuyun together and held them in a tiger bench overnight.

For practitioners who refused to renounce Falun Gong, they were also forced to squat for days on end, including when they were having meals. The guards didn’t provide them with utensils and forced them to eat with their hands. Ms. Ma was forced to squat for twenty days.

Torture illustration: beating

A guard once noticed Ms. Ma reading a Falun Gong lecture. They hung her up by the wrists and shocked her with electric batons, trying to find out where she got the lecture. The torture caused her to have difficulty breathing. Fearing that she would die from the torture, the guards put her down, but still slapped her in the face and questioned her on where she got the lecture.

The guards repeated the torture three times in a day. Ms. Ma completely lost feeling in her arms. She also became incontinent and soiled her pants. She was forced to go through a criticism session on the next day.

During her second labor camp term, the village head repeatedly pressured her husband to divorce her. Fearing being implicated in the persecution, her husband divorced her six days after she was released in November 2004.

Twelve-year Prison Sentence

Ms. Ma’s next arrest was on the evening of July 17, 2007. Both she and another practitioner Ms. Zhang Yuzhi, who happened to be visiting her, were arrested and interrogated at the Tonghe County Police Department. Ms. Ma’s five printers, two computers, 2,000 blank DVD discs, ten boxes of printing paper, together with many other office supplies and personal belongings worth of 30,000 yuan, were confiscated.

A day later, the police arrested her two sons-in-law and interrogated them for a day. Ms. Ma was also interrogated for the next few days.

While Ms. Zhang was released two months later after being extorted 20,000 yuan, Ms. Ma was kept in custody at Tonghe County Detention Center and secretly sentenced to twelve years without her family’s knowledge.

After she was taken to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on December 20, 2007, she was forced to sit on a small stool from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Unable to bear the torture anymore, she was forced to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong, yet the guards continued to force her to watch propaganda videos smearing Falun Gong.

On October 23, 2010, Ms. Ma wrote a solemn statement to resume practicing Falun Gong. She also refused to do the forced labor in protest. The guards retaliated by prohibiting her from having any outdoor activities.

After enduring eight years of torture, Ms. Ma was released four years earlier in 2015.