(Minghui.org) A 62-year-old woman in Beijing was tried in December last year for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual practice currently persecuted in China. She was sentenced to six years for refusing to give up her faith this January. Ms. Mao Fenglan's family are in tremendous distress, not knowing what would happen to her. Ms. Mao had been put in a forced labor camp twice before, and both times she was brutally tortured.

Since the persecution started in July 1999, the officials and police in Shibalidian have repeatedly harassed Ms. Mao and her family. The authorities would lock her up in a brainwashing center or nursing home for weeks, trying to coerce her into giving up the practice.

Ms. Mao was locked up in Xin'an Forced Labor Camp in Beijing for 18 months since Fall of 2001. She was sleeping two hours a day and wasn't allowed to use a toilet. The guards instigated prisoners to beat her. She was forced to perform manual labor without pay and would be punished if she didn't meet the quota.

During the 2008 Olympics, Ms. Mao was put in a forced labor camp again. Her husband had liver cancer and, without proper care, died while she was inside the camp. The authorities didn't allow her to see him and still had her perform forced labor as usual.

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