Despite previous persecution, Ms. Ma continued to practice and promote Falun Gong. At the time of her arrest most of her personal belongings were confiscated.

Ms. Ma Jiying Sentenced to 12-Year Prison Term

Ms. Ma Jiying, 54, a farmer from Tonghe County, Heilongjiang Province, has already served two sentences in forced labor camps, detained for four years. Recently she was sentenced to a 12-year prison term. She is now imprisoned in Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison, which is located in Harbin City.

Ms. Ma Jiying had experienced a lot of setbacks and misfortunes before she encountered Falun Gong. For a period of time, she even lost confidence in life. Once she tried committing suicide by jumping off a cliff, but was caught by tree branches. One day she happened to obtain a copy of Zhuan Falun, which encouraged her to go on with her life.

Ms. Ma Jiying benefited from Falun Gong both physically and spiritually. Since the persecution began in July 1999, she has spoken out for justice for Falun Gong. For doing this, she has been sentenced to forced labor twice and detained for four years. She was tortured, hung up and beaten with both hands tied behind her back, ordered to sit all day with her face touching the back of another practitioner and her eyes looking straight ahead, forced to wear heavy shackles (over 30 pounds) and made to do hard labor. She suffered other inhumane tortures as well.

After she was released, Ms. Ma spent all her savings on a computer, printer, and other equipment in order to produce truth clarification materials about the persecution of Falun Gong. She was illiterate and had financial difficulties, yet she made painstaking efforts to learn the techniques of producing informational materials, and overcame all the difficulties.

On the evening of July 18, 2007, officers from Tonghe County Police Bureau arrested her. Three days later, they took her to a small shed beside the "Goblin Pool" in Sanzhan Village, a suburban area.

In the small shed with wind coming in from all sides, Ms. Ma was tortured for three days and nights. The officers that participated were Lu Junshan, President of the Police Bureau, and Liu Peimin, Commander of the Domestic Security Division. Liu Peimin was the main force behind the persecution of Ms. Ma. In order to force her to cooperate with him and trap more practitioners, he didn't allow her to sleep at all for three days and nights. To pressure her, he deceived her, telling her that he had arrested her two daughters and sons-in-law and sent them to a detention center.

Three days later, the police took Ms. Ma to Fangzheng and detained her. During the period when she was detained, officers from the Tonghe County Police Bureau went there twice. Later they took her to Shangzhi, and later back to Tonghe. After a while, Liu Peimin deceived Ms. Ma, saying, "Your fellow practitioners have told us everything. You will know when you see them."

The police ransacked Ms. Ma Jiying's home and confiscated all her belongings, including a computer and other items valued at over 30,000 yuan. They also took 5,080 yuan in cash from her home. But Liu Peimin said he saw only 2,080 yuan. Even for this 2,080, he didn't give her a receipt. They also took away her bike, a fishing rod, and even the laundry detergent. Only several items of old clothes and blankets were left.