(Clearwisdom.net) Personnel working in the public security organs, the procuratorial organizations and the courts at various levels in mainland China, especially judges, use every means possible to silence lawyers representing Falun Gong practitioners. They threaten, delay, stonewall and use various other tactics to manipulate lawyers to give up defending their clients. They also adopt tactics such as attacking, beatings and unlawful detention to stop lawyers from defending their clients in court. Such conduct has become commonplace in China's legal sector, especially in Falun Gong cases. This article details some of the tactics used.
Tactic 1: Threaten, intimidate and trick family members into dismissing defense lawyers
They can usually get away with this tactic when dealing with older people and helpless and weak younger ones. For example, in order to levy a heavy sentence on Ye Qiaoming from the Sports Center at Fujian Normal University, agents from the Domestic Security Division in Fuzhou and Cangshan District Court officials originally decided to put Ye Qiaoming on trial on March 4, 2010. Learning that her son had hired a lawyer, they immediately canceled the court session, captured Ye Qiaoming's son and took him to the police station to coerce him, forcing him to dismiss the lawyer. Under such threats and pressure, the young man gave in to police demands and signed the document to dismiss the lawyer.
Another example: Police from Qitaihe in Heilongjiang Province unlawfully arrested six Falun Gong practitioners in September 2009, including Li Xinchun and Jiang Bo. Jiang Bo's mom went to 610 Office head Bi Shuqing seeking a meeting with her son. Bi Shuqing threatened, "If you do not dismiss the lawyer you have hired, we will arrest your daughter-in-law, too. Fearing that her daughter-in-law would also be arrested, the lady had to write a letter guaranteeing that she would not hire any lawyer in the future.
As in many places, people in Mainland China tend to believe what law enforcement personnel tell them. Law enforcement personnel who are prepared to violate the law in the first place take advantage of this situation. They threaten and deceive people in order to prevent any lawyer from appearing in court.
After police had unlawfully detained Falun Gong practitioners Liu Jinglu and his wife Sun Lixiang, their family members made inquiries with the procuratorate. The case officer said, "They will definitely get ten years of imprisonment if you hire any lawyer from Beijing. If you want them to be released, then use local lawyers," continuing, "Everything can be considered as long as you dismiss the lawyer from Beijing." This was said to lure their family members into terminating the their contract with the lawyer from Beijing. If a lawyer is to be hired, they want to allow only local lawyers, who they have a better chance to manipulate and control, get involved.
Following practitioner Kuang Xinrong from Chongqing's unlawful arrest, court officials decided to put him on trial the afternoon of December 7, 2009. As soon as they discovered his family had hired a lawyer, officials immediately canceled the trial. Local 610 Office head Wan Fenghua went to Kuang Fenghua's wife and threatened, "If you hire a lawyer, we will arrest you, too!"
Tactic 2: Forcing defense lawyers to withdraw
At the end of 2008, Judge Sun Jianbo from the Nanguan District, Changchun, Jilin Province called Gao Shuyu's family, letting them know of the upcoming court hearing on January 6, 2009. Practitioner Gao Shuyu had by then been detained for almost a year. As soon as judge Sun Jianbo learned that Gao's family had hired a defense lawyer, he created all kinds of obstacles.
First, he refused the lawyer's demand to make any photocopies of the case documents and he told the lawyer later that the court hearing had been postponed to February 2010. When Gao's family asked the lawyer to make inquiries about the case, court officials lied to the lawyer and told him the case was with the Procuratorate of Nanguan District. When the lawyer had gone to the Procuratorate, officials there told him that they had long submitted the case documents to the Nanguan District Court, and they were never returned to them. When he inquired an additional time, judge Sun Jianbo said, "Go back and wait. We will let you know before the hearing." When the lawyer saw that he ran into snags everywhere with the case - in addition to pressure from the Judicial Bureau, for him to terminate the contract - he eventually had to request a termination of the contract between him and his client. The court then notified Gao's family there would be a hearing at a certain date, which gave them no time to find another lawyer. This way, judge Sun Jianbo successfully avoided any "trouble" from a defense lawyer when dealing with Gao Shuyu's case.
On January 7, 2010, practitioner Guo Xiaojun, a lecturer in computer science at Shanghai Jiaotong University was unlawfully arrested and interrogated under torture. When the court learned that his family had hired lawyers for him, they exerted great pressure on each one of the lawyers; all three lawyers had to terminate their contracts.
Tactic 3: Openly preventing lawyers from getting involved
In cases when the court failed to force a lawyer to terminate the contract, they would use various nefarious tactics to keep the lawyer out proceedings, making the lawyer unable to appear in court. The Nangang District Court in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province received a lawsuit filed by the local procuratorate against Falun Gong practitioner Li Zhigang in May 2009. The case was assigned to judge Song Chengzhang in criminal court. He deliberately created various obstacles for the two defense lawyers Han Guangzhi and Jiang Tianyong, to prevent them from reading and photocopying the case documents. He denied that he had ever seen any case documents, that the case was very sensitive, and he needed to ask his superiors for permission. He also said that he did not have time, or the electricity was cut off, and other such ruses. When the lawyers asked the court to cooperate, Song Chengzhang quibbled by saying, "I've just read the case documents and found in questioning Li Zhigang that he said he would not hire any lawyer, but now you come to defend him. If the court allows you to photocopy the case documents and defend him, we would be violating Li Zhigang's rights!"
The lawyers had to point it out to the judge that Li Zhigang's mother, with Li Zhigang's consent, had entrusted the lawyers. The defense team told the judge they had taken down notes in writing at their meeting with Li Zhigang, who also signed the notes. The lawyers told the judge as defense counsel for Li Zhigang, they had the right to access and photocopy case documents under criminal procedure law. When the judge heard this he said, "Are you lawyers? Can you understand what I said? If you cannot understand what I said, how can you act as lawyers? I don't care what happened at your meeting, or how you were entrusted, but when we questioned Li Zhigang he said he would not hire any lawyer. We will follow the notes we took down, not yours." When the lawyers argued, presenting evidence, the judge said he would go and see Li Zhigang again and ask him personally what he wanted to do, in an attempt to send the lawyers away. The judge from then on always said, "Come back tomorrow" when the lawyers wanted to photocopy the case documents.
A judge in Heilongjiang Province even used force to drive the lawyer away. This woman judge called Song Peixia and works in the Jiamusi Intermediate Court. When handling the case of practitioner Ma Duo, she plotted with police station officials and created an insurmountable situation when she called in the lawyer, to discourage the lawyer at the first encounter. That was around 11:00 a.m. on July 2, 2007. The lawyer, accompanied by Ma Duo's family members, went to meet with the judge upon invitation. When they arrived, they immediately found themselves surrounded a large group of agents from the 610 Office and the police station. Jiamusi 610 Office head Liu Yan immediately took personal command. The police pounced on the lawyer and dragged him by the arms into a room in the court. There was huge chaos outside when the police forcibly arrested Ma Duo's family members, including Ma Duo's mother and other relatives. Under such a horrific atmosphere, court officials sentenced Ma Duo three years of imprisonment without notifying his lawyer and family members at a time the defense counsel was unable to exercise his rights and those of his client in court. Even more outrageous: not long after the court sentenced Ma Duo, it also sentenced Ma Duo's mother to three years of imprisonment. Even though both mother and the daughter had hired lawyers, the judge abused her power and imposed these unlawful sentences on them. Ma Duo and her mother are now incarcerated in the Heilongjiang Women's Prison.
Tactic 4: Preventing lawyers from meeting with clients; preventing the lawyer from completing the required paper work
This is the most common tactic. The ways it is done varies from place to place. In some places the persecutors would fabricate stories to prevent any direct meeting.
For example, agents from the Domestic Security Division in Tangshan, Hebei Province unlawfully arrested Falun Gong practitioner Wang Xiwen and refused to allow his family and his lawyer to see him. The excuse they gave: Falun Gong practitioners were forbidden to attend such meetings because their cases "involve secrets." Judicial personnel from the police department in Xichang, Sichuan Province refused a request from Falun Gong practitioner Cheng Donglan's lawyer to meet her, with the same excuse that her case "involves secrets." Cheng Donglan's lawyer went to the police station to argue that the secret defined in the criminal procedure law code refers to state secrets, and the content in Cheng Donglan's case was open to the public, and there was nothing secret about it. The lawyer next went to the Bureau of Justice in Liangshanzhou and to the Notary and Lawyer Management Section. He pointed out that his request to meet with the detainee was consistent with procedural law in the Chinese criminal code; that he had never heard anything about not applying this law in dealing with Falun Gong cases. Because the "law enforcement departments" prevented him from meeting with Cheng Donglan, the lawyer filed a complaint against relevant police, but without results.
Officials in some places would not openly say they would not allow lawyers to meet with their Falun Gong clients, but behind the scenes the officials would make such meetings impossible.
Judge Gu from the Jinan Intermediate Court in Shandong Province has often used such tactics. When the court was about to start the second instance session against practitioner Zhang Xingwu, the judge covertly ordered detention center officials that they must not allow the lawyer to meet with Zhang Xingwu, no matter what.
When the lawyer questioned the police about their unlawful conduct, detention center officials stated the instruction came from the court. When lawyer Liu Wei went back to the court and challenged judge Gu Guangyi who quibbled that the reason was because Zhang Xingwu did not want to hire a lawyer. When the lawyer said he could only know of his client's intention by meeting with him, the judge shifted responsibility to the detention center, saying that the detention center could determine if he could meet with Zhang Xingwu, and the court would not interfere with their decision. But when the lawyer and Cheng's family members went to the detention center, the detention center head told them that judge Gu Guangyi and judge Yu Hui had just called them, instructing them that they must not allow lawyer Liu Wei to meet with Zhang Xingwu. Since he could not meet his client and the court refused to accept his application to represent his client, the lawyer had to leave Jinan.
Practitioner Zhang Yuying's lawyer encountered the same tactic.
First, on April 17, 2004, Licheng District Court officials in Jinan covertly sentenced Zhang Yuying to seven years of imprisonment, without notifying Zhang Yuying's family and her defense lawyer. When the family received the judgment they went to Jinan with her lawyer to visit Zhang Yuying to complete paper work for an appeal. Court officials notified the detention center to prevent the meeting between the lawyer and his client. Through the lawyer's and her family's intervention detention center officials agreed to take the petition for appeal to Zhang Yuying for her signature. Thus the lawyer managed to start the appeal procedure, and Jinan Intermediate Court officials had to accept the appeal. But, the court was even more outrageous this time. On May 8, 2004, judge Gu admitted that he had received the petition for appeal, but when the lawyer went to the court to complete paper work on May 25, 2004, court officials told him the case hearing was already completed. Once again they lied, saying that the client did not want to hire a lawyer and used this as a ruse for not notifying the lawyer.
Tactic 5: Preventing defense counsel under duress from speaking in court
Two incidents in Dandong, Liaoning Province saw a judge threatening the defense counsel. One incident happened in the Zhenxing District Court.
The court had originally scheduled a trial for Falun Gong practitioners Zhang Shujie, Zhang Shuxia and Zhao Guangshun for 8:30 a.m. on June 25, 2009, but they postponed it until 9:10 a.m. During this time the court "worked on" the two lawyers. First, a court deputy head declared that lawyer Wang was not allowed to appear in court, while the other lawyer must not: (1) defend the nature of Falun Gong; (2) defend their innocence, but to enter a plea of guilty; (3) can only defend evidence.
When the lawyer asked, "Do you have any relevant legal documentation for such restrictions?" the deputy head said, "No, this is instructions from above." He also told the lawyer if he did not follow these rules his defense would be cut off.
The other incident took place in the Yuanbao District Court. On July 28, 2009 the court tried practitioner Wang Xiangju. Court head Ms. Wang and criminal court head Ma Shuhe warned the lawyer that he "could only offer simple defense on certain circumstances" and could only "make a guilty plea; otherwise, the sentence would be even heavier."
Ma Shuhe said openly, "Lawyers should not defend the nature of Falun Gong; if they do, he would strike the hammer in court; he would strike the hammer each time the lawyer defends the nature of Falun Gong, and if he strikes the hammer three times, the court will show a red card, and the lawyer will be ordered to leave the court." Ma Shuhe has indeed acted this way in court.
Before Jiamusi District Court officials in Heilongjiang Province tried practitioner Huang Weizhong on June 30, 2009, the court deputy heads and a court head spoke with the lawyer and emphasized the so-called "defense rules," such as he should "cooperate with the court." In order to avoid lawyers, the court constantly spread false information about the time of the trial and even changed the location of the trial, holding it at the remotely located Jiamusi Detention Center. Lawyer Li Xiongbing was barred on arrival and refused entry to the detention center.
When faced with lawyers who refused to conform to unreasonable/illegal requests from judges and insisted to defend their clients according to law, some judges put on an abominable show, disrespecting the image of the court.
What happened in the Luzhou Intermediate Court, Sichuan Province on April 27, 2009 during a retrial of Yang Ming is a typical representation of such conduct.
Practitioner Yang Ming was covertly tried on January 8, 2009 and sentenced to five years of imprisonment. He appealed the judgment with the Luzhou Intermediate Court. At the hearing, lawyers Kang Jitian and Liu Wei from Beijing defended Yang Ming's innocence in court. But as soon as on of the lawyers mentioned Falun Gong, judge Li Xudong would strike the hammer to stop them.
When the lawyers asked for legal evidence of his restrictions, Li Xudong rudely refused their requests and stopped their defense from time to time, making it impossible for the lawyers to make their points. When left with no alternative, the lawyers reminded Li Xudong to give some consideration of the image of the court. But Li Xudong reacted shamelessly. Facing such a hoodlum judge, the lawyers were driven to the end of their patience and walked out in anger. After the lawyers left, the prosecutor and the judge appeared as if they had been relieved of a burden. Court officials determined immediately to uphold the original judgment.
Tactic 6: Beating and arresting lawyers who defend victims' rights
The CCP's public security organs, procuratorial organs and courts incite police and hatchet men to beat and arrest lawyers who uphold justice and conscience, or even frame them and put them in jail. There have been many such cases.
Well-known human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng sought justice for people and wrote three open letters to Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. Unfortunately, CCP officials fabricated accusations and passed sentence on him. Attorney Gao still suffers from persecution by the authorities to date.
Guo Guoting became a human rights lawyer in 2003. When he defended Falun Gong practitioner Zhai Yanlai, CCP officials prevented him from seeing his client for 90 days in a row. When Falun Gong practitioner Chen Guanghui was tortured until he completely lost his mental faculties, lawyer Guo Guoting accepted his case and fought for his release on bail for medical treatment. The authorities obstructed the case for seven months, without any result. Attorney Guo appealed on the Internet. This cost him his license. Perpegtrators grabbed his computer and suspended his practice for a year and detained him. He decided to leave China and went in exile in Canada.
On April 27, 2003, at the hearing of the first-instance case of Falun Gong practitioner Wang Bo, six lawyers, Li Heping, Li Xiongbing, Zhang Lihui, Li Shunzhang, Wu Hongwei and Teng Biao went to defend Wang Bo's innocence. The prosecutor and court officials not only constantly cut them short, preventing them to speak, the police also beat lawyer Teng Biao who was sitting in the public gallery and threw him out on the street. On September 29 that same year, lawyer Li Heping was captured and taken to a Beijing suburb by police. He was subjected to electric shock and battery for nearly five hours, and all his personal belongings were confiscated. The vicious police also threatened him with remarks "Get out of Beijing!"
On January 28, 2009, Jiang Xiqing, a 66 year-old man from Chongqing suddenly "died" in a detention center. When his family members rushed to the funeral parlor they found the body of the old man still warm. His head, chest and legs were covered with scars and bruises. On February 5, the authorities forcibly carried out an autopsy without his family's consent, removed cut out all his organs and sold them for specimens. He was cremated without his family' permission on February 8, 2009. The autopsy report was falsified, stating, "he died of "a heart attack," but the description of the autopsy stated, "the 4th, 5th and 6th of his left ribs were broken, and there was blood stasis in between..." When family members questioned, Chongqing Procuratorate agents replied, "The ribs were broken during emergency treatment to save his life"!
Beijing lawyers Zhang Kai and Li Chunfu were hired by his family to deal with the case, but when they went to Jiang Xiqing's daughter's place on May 13, 2009 to get information, more than twenty agents from the Jiangjin Police Station broke into the room, smashed the lawyers' belongings and beat the two lawyers, pushed the lawyers on the floor, handcuffed them and took them away for detention.
On April 13, 2009, when lawyer Zhou Peng went with another lawyer to meet with client Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Shengrong, immediately a group of people from the local Comprehensive Management Office turned up. When Zhang Shengrong tried to open the door for the lawyers, the persecutors closed the door and would not let the lawyers in. When Zhang Shengrong tried to call the police on 110, the group of people who apparently had been sent by the police in the first place hit and kicked lawyer Cheng and injured him. They dragged lawyer Cheng downstairs and forced the two lawyers out of the residential neighborhood. Lawyer Cheng Hai later told media reporters, "It was around 9:00 a.m. that morning. Seven or eight people came up and forcibly closed the door, refusing us entry. They also hit and kicked me. My middle finger was bleeding around the nail, and I had sharp pain in my left ribcage; even now my right wrist and the thumb joint are still hurting badly." A hospital diagnosis stated the injuries to be soft tissue contusion.
Tactic 7: Framing lawyers and punishing them with a heavy sentence to scare others
Lawyer Wei Liangyue has bravely stepped forward since 2008 to defend Falun Gong practitioners upon their relatives' requests. At the end of 2008, certain judiciary departments reported him to their superiors, complaining about the difficulties lawyer Wei Liangyue had caused them in their persecution of Falun Gong and asked their superiors to take action against lawyer Wei. In the morning of February 28, 2009, police from Harbin broke into lawyer Wei's home and arrested him and his wife. They conducted a so-called "external review" of lawyer Wei on the north bank of the Songhua River.
Human rights lawyer Wang Yonghang from Liaoning Province wrote an article in August 2008 titled "A huge mistake was made in the past; it's better to quickly clear out the remaining misfortunes."
From a pure legal perspective, he pointed out that the accusations against Falun Gong by the authorities under Article 300 of the Criminal Law of China were groundless, and pointed out further that the sentences imposed upon Falun Gong practitioners by courts at various levels were the most ridiculous, which should never have taken place; that they would bring great shame to the legal sector in mainland China and to future generations of legal professionals. He openly sent this article to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Procuratorate, in hopes that they would correct their mistakes according to the law. On July 4, 2009, more than twenty police officers broke into his home, beating him violently and taking him away. At the police station they beat him again, breaking and damaging his anklebones, which later required artificial bone transplant. The next year the authorities sentenced lawyer Wang Yonghang seven years of imprisonment, even though there was a serious lack of evidence.
Tactic 8: Capturing Falun Gong practitioners' relatives and friends who hired defense lawyers
As those "law enforcement personnel" are extremely fearful of human rights lawyers, they pay great attention to if any lawyers have been hired, and where the lawyers come from. They would attack and oppress those practitioners' relatives who have engaged lawyers. For example, the intermediate court in Jiamusi in Heilongjiang Province arrested practitioner Ma Duo's mother Qiu Yuxia before they tried Ma Duo's case. More disgusting: following Ma Duo's imprisonment verdict, they also sentenced Ma Duo's practitioner mother to three years of imprisonment as a form of retaliation.
The widely known case of Wang Bo from Shijiazhuang in 2007 provides even more plausible evidence of such tactic. On April 27, 2007 Shijiazhuang Intermediate Court officials heard her case in the second instance. Lawyers Li Heping, Teng Biao, Li Qiongbing, Zhang Lihui, Li Shunchang and Wu Hongwei from Beijing defended Wang Bo's and her family's innocence. They pointed out that under the Constitution and the law, Falun Gong practice is non-criminal; that the persecution of Falun Gong is truly criminal and violates the law. Their defense was clear and logical, with detailed and accurate evidence. As the legal reasoning and the facts they provided were indisputable, the prosecutor and the judge were unable to advance any further arguments to justify what they were doing.
In order to avoid lawyers, Shijiazhuang intermediate court transferred Wang Bo and her family elsewhere and later sentenced Wang Bo covertly to five years of imprisonment and her parents to four years of imprisonment. Furthermore, they unlawfully arrested Wang Bo's auntie's husband Gai Wufan who hired the lawyers for them and sentenced him to forced labor in the Shijiazhuang Labor Camp without following any legal procedures. At the same time they also arrested Wang Bo's other relatives and friends who audited the hearing in the public gallery that day; some of them were also unlawfully sentenced to forced labor.
On April 27, 2009, these so-called "law enforcement personnel" again arrested practitioner Feng Xiaomei and sent her to Hebei Province Women's Labor Camp as an act of ruthless retaliation, plunging Feng Xiaomei's life into great danger. They had suspected that Feng Xiaomei also helped Wang Bo's family to hire the lawyers.
Court officials knowingly trample the law
When questioned why they were doing things this way, the law enforcers with public power in hand used the same tactic - they must strive "for politics." Suzhou court officials sentenced Falun Gong practitioner Lu Tong to four years of imprisonment on December 17, 2008. When his daughter tried to appeal for redress of a wrong and asked the court to re-try her father according to law, judge Gu Yingqing unmistakably declared, "Don't expect the law to be beyond politics. What's the point of talking to me about the law? I'm talking politics to you."
After a judge in Yiyang court in Hunan Province sentenced practitioner Zhang Chunqiu to imprisonment, he said, "Right now, the Party wants to persecute Falun Gong in the name of the law. We can only go through the motions. There is nothing we can do. It's not our fault."
The fact is that these law enforcers have lost their basic sense of morals and justice. In their greed to acquire additional personal advantages, they spare no effort to implement the evil policies of the CCP.
The CCP will be exposed and punished for its crimes. In the near future, when the true era of rule of law arrives, can these people who work in the public security organs, procuratorial organs and the courts escape punishment for having evaded their responsibilities? The current "Law for Public Servants," Article 54 in Chapter 9 stipulates, "Public servants who carry out decisions and orders that are obviously against the law should bear corresponding legal responsibilities."
This law has blocked all escape routes for those people who work in the public security organs, the procuratorial organs and who have participated in the persecution of Falun Gong. The only way out for them is to stop following the CCP, stop persecuting Falun Gong and stop all unlawful words and deeds. They must immediately awaken their conscience they should have as executors of the law and truly handle cases according to law, and support justice and fairness.