(Clearwisdom.net) On May 5, 2005, Hong Kong's highest court handed down a verdict stating that the arrest of 16 Falun Dafa practitioners by Hong Kong police officers three years ago was illegal, and cleared the practitioners of all charges. This was a case where an unfair verdict originally rendered under pressure from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) was corrected through the efforts of Falun Dafa practitioners' clarifying the truth and with help from many upright people.

The defense attorney representing Falun Gong practitioners believes that the final verdict was a victory for freedom of speech in Hong Kong. It's well known that an independent judicial system is critical to justice. But in Mainland China, the judicial system is a tool controlled by the CCP regime and used to persecute Falun Dafa.

On May 9, 2005, the New York Times published an article with facts that raised doubts

about whether the CCP is governing China according to its own laws. One of the examples used was that Falun Gong practitioners being detained at the Second Forced Labor Camp of Shandong Province without any legal procedures. The CCP claimed through its media that it governs China by law, but in fact China is run by an authoritarian regime. In July 1999 when Jiang's regime started persecuting Falun Dafa, it was done with no legal basis whatsoever. The CCP just used the power of the nation under its control to start the persecution. The persecution has been illegal from the first day. The laws used by the CCP are just a thin veneer for its illegal acts.

Jiang Zemin has said that the law does not apply when it comes to Falun Gong. He gave orders to "defame their reputations, bankrupt them financially and destroy them physically", and that "if they are beaten to death, just claim it as suicide." During the almost 6 years of persecution, Chinese police and government officials controlled by the 610 office have ignored the Chinese constitution and laws, killing, beating, arresting, detaining, torturing and sentencing Falun Dafa practitioners at will. The police have been searching practitioners' homes, fining them, and implicating their families without constraint.

Gao Zhicheng is an attorney at the Chengzhi Attorney's Office in Beijing. In the process of making an appeal on behalf of Falun Dafa practitioner Huang Wei, he got a reply from the courts in Shijiazhuang City that said, "According to upper level orders, no cases related to Falun Gong will be accepted and no documents or files will be submitted." The judges openly said, "No laws are to be used for Falun Dafa practitioners." One judge at a court in Liaoning Province said to

Falun Gong practitioners, "One shout of 'Falun Dafa is good' is enough to warrant seven year of prison for you."

In China, when practitioners exercised their freedom of belief and freedom of speech, which are their rights in accordance with the Chinese Constitution, police officers under CCP control have been arresting them at will. The final verdict by Hong Kong's highest court pointed out that protest and demonstrations are legal, and the police arrest was illegal. This was rule of law put into action, and no amount of lies, pressure, and propaganda could change that.

May 9, 2005