(Minghui.org) Mr. Wang Changqing and his brother Mr. Wang Changchun were tried by the Gaoxin District Court in Zibo, Shandong Province on September 28, 2016.
The brothers were arrested in March for suing Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party who initiated the brutal persecution of Falun Gong.
Mr. Wang Changqing pleaded not guilty and said he did not break any laws by practicing Falun Gong; he added that he was following the law by suing Jiang Zemin for violating his constitutional right as a citizen to practice his spiritual belief.
His attorney argued that the prosecutor was wrong to use Article 300 of the Criminal Law–“using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement”–to prosecute Falun Gong practitioners.
The judge said that she would announce the verdict at a later date.
Mr. Wang Changchun was tried later that day. After his lawyer's defense arguments, the judge scolded the prosecutor and adjourned the trial.
The judge told the family members before the trial that any of the defendants' family members and friends could attend the trial as long as they showed their identifications. However, on the day of the trial, the judge told the family to wait while she consulted the captain of the local Domestic Security Division. In the end, only the practitioners' immediate relatives were allowed into the courtroom.
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other members of the Politburo Standing Committee and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.
The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners over the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.
Under his personal direction, the Communist regime established an extralegal security organization, the 610 Office, on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.
Chinese law allows its citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.