(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Xie Kunxiang defended herself during her trial in Liwan District Court on June 15, 2015. In addition, she filed criminal charges against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin for ordering the persecution.
Ms. Xie, 62, a former police officer, has been repeatedly arrested, sentenced, and tortured for her belief. She was fired from her job in 2000 when she appealed for Falun Gong in Beijing.
Her latest arrest was on December 31, 2014, when she was distributing informational materials about the practice and the persecution. She has since been detained in the Liwan Detention Center.
In front of a courtroom filled with staff from the 610 Office and police officers on June 15, Ms. Xie testified to the maltreatment that she suffered during the past 16 years.
“Those who've participated in the persecution, as well as those who are taking part in the prosecution and the judge who sentences me, are all committing crimes,” she said.
Ms. Xie's lawyer also defended her freedom of belief. “Practicing Falun Gong doesn't violate any law in China. The torture that the practitioners have suffered is a crime against humanity,” said her lawyer. The judge repeatedly interrupted the lawyer's defense.
The judge adjourned the trial without issuing a verdict. Ms. Xie was returned to the detention center.
Ms. Xie was savagely beaten, exposed to the baking sun, hung by her handcuffed wrists for long periods of time, and force-fed while she was detained at Chatou Forced Labor Camp in 2001. She was only skin and bones when she was released.
She was arrested in August 2004 when distributing materials that exposed the persecution of Falun Gong. She was sentenced to a three-year term by the Haizhu District Court. At Guangzhou Women's Prison, the guards injected her with harmful drugs and forcibly drew blood from her.