(Minghui.org) A 63-year-old man in Yishui County has been sent to Ji'nan Prison to serve three years after the Linyi Intermediate Court rejected his appeal on August 13, 2018, without a hearing.

After Mr. Ma Shengcai's imprisonment, his wife, Ms. Cai Honghua, was taken into custody on September 18, 2018. She had been given 1.5 years in a joint trial with her husband in May but had been out on bail due to high blood pressure.

The couple was first arrested on July 21, 2017, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline persecuted by the communist regime since 1999. The police ransacked their residence and took them to the police station for interrogation.

Mr. Ma was later transferred to Yishui Detention Center and kept there until he was taken to prison.

Ms. Cai, 64, was released on bail after serving 15 days of administrative detention. She was informed on April 25, 2018, by staff from Yishui County Court to go to Chaishan Detention Center for a joint trial with her husband.

After Ms. Cai went into the makeshift courtroom inside the detention center, the police blocked her family members from entering and threatened to arrest them if they insisted.

Mr. Ma defended their innocence and argued that they did not violate any laws in practicing Falun Gong. The judge stopped him from talking and adjourned the hearing in twenty minutes.

The couple received their verdicts on May 7. Each was fined 10,000 yuan in addition to prison time.

Ms. Cai, who remained on bail after her sentencing, was taken to Longjiaquan Town Police Station on May 17 but was released on the same day after she was found to be in poor health. The police tried again four months later and sent her to Hedong Detention Center in Linyi City on September 18.