(Minghui.org) A Falun Gong practitioner in Mengyin County, Shandong Province, was sentenced to two years for his faith on June 11, 2024 and admitted to the Shandong Province Prison on March 26, 2025, Minghui.org recently learned.
Mr. Ma Fumin, a 77-year-old retired elementary school teacher, was arrested at home in early August 2022, by officers from the Mengyin County Police Department and the Jiuzhai Village Police Station. The police only produced a QR code and claimed that to be the search warrant. They confiscated his Falun Gong books and informational materials.
During the raid, Ms. Ma’s wife, Ms. Wang Huanfen, noticed the police placed a roll of posters into their closet and then took it out, alleging that it was something confiscated from the home.
Mr. Ma was released on bail in September 2022, after paying 20,000 yuan bond. He was later indicted by Zhou Weiwei of the Yi’nan County Procuratorate. He stood trial at the Yi’nan County Court on June 11, 2024 and was sentenced to two years on June 27, 2024, by judge Yin Chuanwei, Xu Xinggang and Guo Min. Clerk Zhang Linlin and the judges’ assistant Fang Zenghui also signed his verdict.
Past Persecution
Both Mr. Ma and Ms. Wang took up Falun Gong in the summer of 1997. Ms. Wang’s back pain, allergic asthma and duodenal ulcer soon disappeared. Because they remain firm after the Chinese Communist Party began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, both of them have been arrested numerous times.
Mr. Ma was first arrested on July 23, 1999, three days after the onset of the persecution. The township government officials beat him and forced him to sit on the ground with his legs and arms straighten out. They extorted 2,000 yuan from him and released him a day later. Since then, the township government officials and local police constantly harassed him at home. His Falun Gong books and lecture audio tapes were all confiscated.
Over 30 officials, including Gong Tongliang, the township Party committee secretary; Jia Shunli, the township mayor; Liu Changkun, the township deputy secretary; Liu Changbo, the police chief; and Liu Shaowu, the discipline inspection secretary, broke into Mr. Ma’s home on January 13, 2000. They emptied most valuables in his house, seizing his furniture, appliances, tools, cotton stock, livestock feed, some food, angora rabbits, and premium lumber, in three trucks. This caused the family a financial loss of nearly 60,000 yuan. They only had a bed, some dinnerware and clothes left.
Mr. Ma and his wife were held at a brainwashing center between March and June 2000, where male and female practitioners were forced to live in the same room and use the same restroom. They were monitored around the clock.
The couple were extorted a total of 7,300 yuan when they were released from the brainwashing center. The authorities also suspended Mr. Ma’s salary between March and June 2000, and between July and October 2001, for a total of 11,476 yuan.
Mr. Ma wrote to Song Faliang, the county Party secretary, and Zhang Guangjing, the township major, in February 2001, condemning them for suspending his salary. In retaliation, agents Li Zhiye and Lei Yancheng of the county 610 Office arrested him on October 24, 2001 and gave him an unknown term at the Wangcun Forced Labor Camp. He was also held at the Shandong Province Legal Education Center (a brainwashing center in disguise) for a month and extorted 1,500 yuan.
Mr. Ma’s next arrest was on March 24, 2008, by the county 610 Office agents. They confiscated his Falun Gong books, audio tapes and informational materials. He was detained for 34 days. During that time, the police once interrogated him for over 50 hours. They kept him handcuffed and deprived him of sleep.
Mr. Ma was later given a two-year forced labor camp term. The guards handcuffed him, slapped him in the face with a book, and forced him to work every day without pay, mostly pressing aluminum foil. His pay was suspended between August 2008 and February 2010, resulting in a loss of 12,600 yuan.
Between March 2009 and December 2012, a total of 35,000 yuan of housing subsidy was also withheld from Mr. Ma.
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