(Minghui.org) More than ten people from the Daxing District Court in Beijing descended on the home of 87-year-old Ms. Ma Xiuying on March 25, 2024, and threatened to have her sentenced to one year for her faith in Falun Gong.
Since the Chinese Communist Party began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Ma has been repeatedly targeted for upholding her faith. This latest episode stemmed from her arrest in August 2021 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong at Daxingtuanhe Market. Due to her advanced age, the market’s security released her.
After that, the police and residential committee staff members frequently went to harass her, either demanding to take photos of her or ordering her to sign certain documents. The police forcibly collected a sample of her blood during one visit, threatening to take away the portrait of Falun Gong’s founder if she didn’t comply. After the police left, Ms. Ma noticed that her copy of Zhuan Falun, the main teaching of Falun Gong, was missing. She ran after the police and got it back.
She was also harassed by the police and community workers between March and June 2021, a few months before her arrest.
Ms. Ma started to practice Falun Gong in July 1996 and credits it for curing her of many ailments, including cirrhosis, tuberculosis, Meniere’s syndrome, and low blood pressure. Out of gratitude, she often distributed materials to raise awareness about the persecution and then became a target herself.
Prior to this latest incident, Ms. Ma was arrested on September 25, 2015, for distributing materials. After several releases on bail and re-arrests, she appeared in court on November 5, 2018, and was sentenced to one year on April 18, 2019. Although she was initially denied admission to the local detention center after it was discovered that she had tuberculosis, the police placed her under house arrest and got her admitted to the Tiantanghe Women’s Prison in August 2019.
82-year-old Woman Imprisoned for Her Faith
82-Year-Old Woman Sentenced to One Year for Distributing Materials about Her Faith