Ma Lili of Tangshan City Given a Three-year Sentence, Her Family Plans to Appeal

Name: Ma Lili
Gender: Female
Age: 49
Address: Tangshan City, Hebei Province
Occupation: A railway worker at Jia'anzi station in Tangshan City
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 16th, 2010
Most Recent Place of Detention: Tangshan City First Detention Centre
City: Tangshan
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, detention

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Ma Lili was sentenced to three years in prison by the Tangshan City Lubei Court in Hebei Province. The term began on February 27th, 2011. Ma Lili will be transferred to Shijiazhuang City.

The one who initiated the persecution of Falun Gong, former leader of China, Jiang Zemin, went to Tangshan City on August 11th, 2010. The 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) in Tangshan City, Hebei Province then launched a large-scale round of persecution of local Falun Gong practitioners. Nearly twenty practitioners were arrested and detained. At around 11a.m. on August 16th, Ma Lili, a railway worker, was arrested near the Jianguolu Market in the Lunan District by officers from the Shichang Police Station. At around 5 p.m. that afternoon, Ma Lili was sent to the Changningdao Detention Centre and was detained there. After 15 days, Chen Bin, a policeman from the Jianshelu Police Station, issued a report about Ma Lili. Then the Lubei District Procuratorate informed Ma Lili's family that they had authorised the arrest. Currently, Ma Lili is being detained at the Tangshan City First Detention Centre.

At the end of November 2010, the Lubei District Court, Tangshan City held a hearing on Ma Lili's case. The court did not allow Ms. Ma's relatives to attend the trial. Her family did not hear any news from Ma Lili afterwards. When they went directly to the court to inquire about Ms. Ma, they found out that the court had held another secret, secondary trial around January 10th. The court did not even notify Ma Lili's family about this trial.

The Lubei District Court told Ma Lili's family that Ms. Ma has appealed and they should turn to the Intermediate Court if there were any problems. On January 24th, when her family consulted the Intermediate Court, they were told that the case was closed. The reason the Intermediate Court provided for the closure of her case was that Ma Lili had supposedly withdrawn the appeal. However, during this period of time, Ma Lili's family did not see Ms. Ma even once, and all of her personal rights were denied. Therefore, considering the persecution and under these circumstances, it is dubious as to whether Ma Lili's legal right to appeal was truly protected and used.

Ma Lili started to practice Falun Gong in March of 1996. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, on June 24th, 2006 Ma Lili went to Beijing to explain the facts and appeal to the central authorities for justice for Falun Gong. She was arrested. In the Beijing Detention Centre, five policemen pulled her hair and beat her. Ma Lili was then sent to the Tangshan City Second Detention Centre and the Kaiping City Forced Labour Camp, the latter detention lasting for 2 years. She suffered cruel persecution there. In May 2003, Ma Lili was arrested again when she was explaining the facts about Falun Gong. She was taken to the Tangshan City Second Detention Centre and detained there for 2 months. During her detention, Ms. Ma was shackled to an iron chair for four days. She was then sent to the Kaiping City Forced Labour Camp for 3 years. She suffered another round of cruel persecution, including solitary confinement, sleep deprivation and brainwashing.

Ma Lili was arrested again in August 2010. Distraught, her parents, who are in their 70s, rushed around to try to rescue their innocent daughter. However, the Jianshelu Police Station, the Lubei District Detention Centre, the local police station and the Lubei District Procuratorate avoided responsibility for Ma Lili's case and refused to meet with her parents.

Agencies involved in the persecution:
Jianshelu Police Station: 86-315-2824442
Lubei District Procuratorate: 86-315-3724090 (Department of Public Litigation), 3724150, 3724299

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/2/26/236800.html