(Minghui.org) A Liupanshui City, Guizhou Province resident was arrested in May 2020 for her faith in Falun Gong. Ms. Ma Yongju was sentenced to four years and fined 10,000 yuan by the Zhongshan District Court on April 25, 2021. She has appealed with the Liupanshui City Intermediate Court and is now awaiting the result.
This is the third time that Ms. Ma has been incarcerated for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline also known as Falun Dafa that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
With the onset of the persecution, Ms. Ma went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in October 2000. She was arrested, taken back to Liupanshui and detained for 15 days.
Ms. Ma was arrested again in 2002 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong and given three years of forced labor.
Her next arrest was in 2009 for writing “Falun Dafa is good” on a wall. Another practitioner surnamed Lu was arrested together with her. As Ms. Lu was pregnant, the police forced her to have an abortion. Both Ms. Lu and Ms. Ma were given one year of forced labor. While Ms. Lu was allowed to serve time at home, Ms. Ma was taken to the Zhongba Women’s Forced Labor Camp and subjected to drug administration, sleep deprivation, starvation and denied use of sanitary napkins during her menstrual periods.
Prior to a communist regime’s major political meeting, Ms. Ma was arrested at home on November 6, 2012 and held in a brainwashing center for over 20 days.
She was arrested again on August 21, 2018 and interrogated at the police station. The police added unknown drugs to her food during her 8-day detention at the Liupanshui City Lockup. She felt very cold and numb, and her heart palpitated after having the food.