(Minghui.org) Police cars surrounded the Hulan District Courthouse in Harbin City at 8:30 a.m. on July 31, 2012. Three police officers were at the door of the courthouse monitoring the situation nearby.
Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Zhang Qingsheng, Yang Xiuying, and Wen Shufang were escorted into the courtroom with their heads covered. The trial started at 9:30 a.m. About 20 family members of the practitioners were in attendance. Policewomen sat with the spectators and the entire proceedings were video-recorded.
After presiding judge Hou Zhenyu announced that due to the circumstances the practitioners had the right to apply for withdrawal, and Mr. Zhang Qingsheng did so. Mr. Zhang lived in the Songbei District and had been arrested by officers from the Songbei Police Department. However, he was being tried in the Hulan District Court. Both Mr. Zhang and his lawyer asked the Hulan District Court to withdraw from the proceedings, because things had not been done according to the law.
The lawyer also pointed out that the recording clerk was a police officer instead of a court employee. He said this was inconsistent with normal court procedures. However, Presiding Judge Hou Zhenyu said that different district courts had different rules and that it was OK to have a police officer as a recording clerk in his court. Then, after a 20-minute break, the judge announced that the trial would be rescheduled.
Many of the practitioners' relatives were waiting at the rear door of the courthouse. When the car with the practitioners came out, shouts of “Falun Dafa is great” and “Release Falun Gong practitioners” could be heard everywhere.
Mr. Zhang Qingsheng was an engineer with HPCC-3 in Heilongjiang Province and had a happy family life before the persecution began. However, he, his wife, and their daughter were detained, had money taken from them, and were sentenced to forced labor camps and jails, because they did persisted in their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Mr. Zhang has been sentenced to a forced labor camp and then to three years in a prison since the persecution began in 1999. His wife, Sun Yuhua, was sentenced to forced labor camps four times and then persecuted to death. In order to cover up their responsibility for the death of Ms. Sun, officers from Hulan District Police Department sent their 18-year-old daughter, Zhang Hui, to a forced labor camp, and Mr. Zhang was illegally sentenced to three years in Hulan Prison.
On October 18, 2011, officers from Songbei Police Department and Leye Police Station, including Cai Jingxiang, arrested Mr. Zhang outside his home. Ms. Zhang Hui was arrested at around 2:00 p.m. on her way to work. At about 5:00 p.m., their home was ransacked. Fifty thousand yuan, two laptop computers, two printers, one scanner, one CD burner, more than ten cell phones, and an electric bicycle were confiscated. Mr. Zhang is currently being detained in the First Detention Center of Harbin City.
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