(Minghui.org) An Arxan City, Inner Mongolia resident was sentenced to four years for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Ma Xiuqin, a clothes shop owner, was arrested on March 4, 2020. Two other Falun Gong practitioners visiting her shop, Ms. Yang Xiaohua and Ms. Liang Zuohua, were also arrested. One of her customers was also brought to the police station and interrogated after the police heard that Ms. Ma talked to her about Falun Gong.

The police ransacked Ms. Ma’s shop and her home. Due to the coronavirus epidemic, they released the three practitioners that evening.

The police arrested Ms. Ma again on March 11 and put her in criminal detention at Ulanhot City Detention Center. The authorities didn’t allow her daughter to visit her or send in clothes and daily necessities.

When Ms. Ma’s daughter went to the police station to seek her release, the police blocked her at the entrance and refused to talk to her.

The Arxan City Court held a hearing of Ms. Ma through teleconferencing on May 21, 2020. Her family received her four-year verdict on June 12.

In the past 21 years of the persecution of Falun Gong, Ms. Ma has been arrested several times and served three terms of forced labor for a total of six years.

While serving a term at Tumuji Forced Labor Camp, Ms. Ma was beaten by five inmates and tied up on November 17, 2001, after she refused to verbally abuse Falun Gong. She passed out four times during the two-hour torture. The inmates also handcuffed her, kicked her in the back and shocked her head with electric batons. One of her hands couldn’t function normally after the torture, and yet she was still forced to do the unpaid labor.

Because Ms. Ma refused to renounce Falun Gong, the guards deprived her of sleep and hung her up on May 18, 2002. Her term was later extended for more than a year.