(Minghui.org) Minghui.org recently learned of the 7.5-year prison sentence of a Heilongjiang native in Zhejiang Province for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Ma Guobin, around 55, was arrested on October 26, 2018, while he was doing odd jobs in Danshan City, Zhejiang Province. The police targeted him after discovering he had put up Falun Gong informational materials in several residential areas. His rental place was raided and his Falun Gong materials were confiscated.
The Dinghai District Court in Danshan City sentenced Mr. Ma to 7.5 years with a 5,000-yuan fine at an unknown time. He filed an appeal, and the Danshan City Intermediate Court ruled on June 10, 2019 to uphold his original verdict.
Mr. Ma was admitted to the Zhejiang Province Fourth Prison (located in the capital city of Hangzhou) on June 27, 2019. His older brother Xuan (alias) called the prison recently and requested a visit with him.
The guard answering the phone said that Xuan must obtain an invite from Mr. Ma or secure official proof from Xuan’s household registration office showing that the two are biological brothers. Without being allowed to call or see Mr. Ma, it is impossible for Xuan to get an invitation from his brother. It is unclear whether Xuan is in the process of talking to the police station in charge of household registration mattters.
Besides Mr. Ma, more than one hundred other Falun Gong practitioners have been held at the Zhejiang Province Fourth Prison at one point or another during the past more than two decades. All newly admitted practitioners are subjected to intensive brainwashing first, before being assigned to different divisions, where they are forced to do hard labor without pay. Those who fail to finish work quotas or renounce Falun Gong face various forms of abuse, including beatings, being denied bathroom use, sleep deprivation, long-term standing or sitting on a small bench, being restrained to a bed in a spread-eagle position, and forced-feeding.