(Minghui.org) A married couple were both sentenced to 1.5 years and fined 4,000 yuan on May 24, 2023 for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Tang Pingshun and Ms. Ma Xiuyun, residents of Chaoyang District, Beijing, both in their 60s, were arrested at home on June 9, 2022. Their computer, printer, Falun Gong books and expired calendars with information about Falun Gong were confiscated. Many of the items were later used as prosecution evidence against them.
As the Chaoyang District Detention Center refused to accept the couple due to the pandemic, they were released on bail. The police harassed the couple on October 6, 2022 and ordered them not to go out to promote Falun Gong. Shortly after, the couple noticed two people staying outside of their home to monitor them.
The couple were arrested by more than twenty officers six days later on October 12. They were taken to the Chaoyang District Detention Center and their arrests were approved on the same day.
The couple’s daughter, who currently lives outside of China, called the Taiyanggong Police Station on October 17, asking why they arrested her parents. The police refused to provide any details, but implied that it was because of the stability control during the Communist Party’s 20th Congress, which were held from October 16 to 22.
After the regime’s 20th Congress ended, the police still held the couple in custody and submitted their cases to the Chaoyang District Procuratorate on December 8, 2022, citing their earlier arrests on June 9, 2022. The prosecutor indicted them on January 6, 2023 and moved their cases to the Chaoyang District Court.
Mr. Tang and Ms. Ma appeared in Wenyuhe Court in Changyang District on March 15, 2023. They both testified in their own defense. Ms. Ma said she and her husband didn’t undermine any law enforcement or cause any harm to society by practicing Falun Gong. She emphasized that her and her husband’s efforts to be better and more considerate people by following Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance could only benefit society.
Their two lawyers refuted the allegations against them and demanded their acquittal. The prosecutor insisted that his allegations against the couple were correct.
The prosecutor and judge also attempted to force the couple to reveal who provided Falun Gong books to them, or whether they printed the books themselves. They refused to answer the question.
The judge sentenced the couple on May 24.
Prior to their latest sentencing, both Mr. Tang and Ms. Ma had been repeatedly targeted for their faith. Ms. Ma, in particular, was thrice given forced labor terms totaling 6.5 years.
Arrested Twice in 2000
Ms. Ma went to Tiananmen Square to publicly appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in August 2000 and was arrested. She was detained at Chaoyang District Detention Center for 7 days. She returned to Tiananmen Square on October 1 that year and was arrested again. She was held at the same detention center for another five days.
First Forced Labor Term (1.5 Years) Given in 2001
Ms. Ma was summoned to Taiyanggong Police Station for a talk in March 2001, only to be arrested upon arrival and taken straight to Chaoyang District Detention Center, where she was detained for 28 days. The police indicated that they kept her in custody to prevent her from appealing for Falun Gong during the “two sessions” (the communist regime’s two annual political meetings).
In May 2001, two women knocked on her door and claimed to be checking natural gas lines. She opened the door and four men suddenly came out of nowhere. They grabbed her and drove her to a house in a rural area in Huairou County in Beijing. She was on a hunger strike in protest every day during her ten-plus days of detention there.
Days after she was released, she was arrested again and taken to Beijing Legal Education Center (a brainwashing center). Many other Beijing practitioners were also taken there at the same time.
Ms. Ma went to Tiananmen Square on October 1, 2001 and was followed by a plainclothes officer, who soon arrested her and took her to Tiananmen Police Station. She was later transferred to Tuanjiehu Police Department, where an officer slapped her in the face more than ten times.
Officers of the Taiyanggong Police Station later picked her up and detained her in a basement in Chaoyang District. Liu Renshun, an agent from Chaoyang District 610 Office, and a police officer were assigned to watch her around the clock. Both men had a cold and fever and could no longer stand the damp basement. They moved Ms. Ma to a seniors’ home about two weeks later and kept her there for more than half a month. She was then transferred to Chaoyang District Detention Center and given one and half years of forced labor one month later.
Because Ms. Ma refused to cooperate with the labor camp guards, she was hung up by the wrists for seven days and beaten every day. The guards didn’t give her any food or water. They also denied her restroom use, forcing her to relieve herself in her pants. After taking her down on the eighth day, the guards stripped her in front of a crowd and took her to the laundry room.
Second Forced Labor Term (2.5 Years) Given in 2005
Ms. Ma was arrested at home on March 30, 2005 and taken straight to Chaoyang District Detention Center. She was later given two and half years of forced labor. She did Falun Gong exercises at Beijing Women’s Labor Camp and was forced to sit on a tall chair from 5:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. the next day. For three months, she was not given enough food to eat and not allowed to shower, change her clothes, or contact her family. Then she was moved to Team Three to do unpaid labor, including carrying cow dung, preparing pig feed and watering crops.
Third Forced Labor Term (2.5 Years) Given in 2008
Ms. Ma was arrested again on May 23, 2008 and had her home ransacked. She was given 2.5 years of forced labor on June 19 that year. A labor camp in Beijing sold her to the Hubei Province Women’s Forced Labor Camp to do free labor. As she refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was forced to stand under the scorching sun for long hours from 6 a.m. to midnight. She was also forced to do unpaid labor.
Around the Clock Surveillance
Mr. Ma was detained at a local lockup for 30 days in 2017 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. He was then held at a brainwashing center before being released. Even when he and his wife were not in detention, they found themselves closely monitored, especially around days deemed sensitive by the communist regime.
On May 8, 2017, the couple noted two men in their 20s staking outside their home. The men followed them when they went out. The street committee staffers also went to their home to harass them. The two men didn’t retreat until May 16 that year.
On October 1, 2017, the couple again spotted people outside their home monitoring them around the clock. The same happened again during the 2018 “two sessions” starting March, and around April 25, 2019 (20th anniversary since 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners peacefully appealed outside the State Council’s Appeals Office in Beijing in 1999).
Related Reports:
Beijing Couple Faces Trial for Practicing Falun Gong
Police in the Beijing Assignment Department Sexually Assault Female Dafa Practitioners
Account of the Persecution I Witnessed in Beijing Dispatch Center and Women's Labor Reform Camp
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