(Minghui.org) In collusion with the police department and the procuratorate of the Songshan District, Chifeng City of Inner Mongolia, the court held a hearing for Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Lei on April 8, 2013. At the hearing, the judge Guo pressured her to repent in order to be “transformed”. Ms. Zhang firmly rejected the coercion and upheld her faith.

The term “transform” as used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) refers to the implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force practitioners to renounce Falun Gong.

Prior to the hearing, Ms. Zhang had been held in a detention center for more than nine months. Due to the severe torture she suffered there, she was extremely weak and had developed symptoms of illness. Despite her condition, she tried to defend herself at the hearing; however, the judge harshly interrupted her whenever she stated her key points.

The judge and the procurator pretended to act kindly in the beginning, however, as the hearing progressed, their true nature emerged. They often interrupted Ms. Zhang’s attorney whenever they felt unable to argue with his reasonable defense.

Ms. Zhang’s attorney was from Beijing. He conducted a righteous defense of pleading not guilty according to China’s existing laws and regulations, through which many of the officials present learned that practicing Falun Gong is not against the law, and that it is the CCP that breaks the law and abuses human rights.

Ms. Zhang Lei is living in Chifeng City. She suffered a serious illness when she studied at the Chifeng Education College, but after she began practicing Falun Gong in 1996, she fully recovered and was soon illness-free. Her academic performance also dramatically improved. She was successfully employed by a private school in Beijing after she graduated.

Since Jiang Zemin and the CCP began persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Zhang has been persecuted on multiple ocassions, and had to leave her hometown for nine years to avoid further persecution. She has been arrested and taken into custody three times. The third time occurred in late July or early August of 2012.

After that, the Songshan District Court colluded with the Songshan District Procuratorate and illegally tried Ms. Zhang on April 8, 2013.

The Songshan District Court in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia

On the day of the hearing, agents from the Songshan District Domestic Security Division, including Xu Guofeng and Liu Long were all present at the court. They monitored the hearing, taking pictures and videos to put pressure on Ms. Zhang and her attorney. More than twenty of Ms. Zhang’s relatives and friends came to court, but the guards didn’t let them attend the hearing.

The hearing was supposed to be open to the public, yet the authorities chose a small room and forbid people from attending. They did this to stop people from hearing the attorney’s defense of Ms. Zhang, through which they would come to understand the truth that the CCP breaks the law to persecute practitioners. Their evil deeds and illegal hearing could not stand the light of day. According to an official from the political and judiciary committee, all the ten people present at the hearing were police officers and prosecutors. Why did the authorities not dare to let ordinary people sit in on this hearing?

The CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong is absolutely illegal, and whoever participates in it will have to pay for their actions.