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Lawyer Demands Acquittal of Falun Gong Practitioner

Nov. 7, 2016 |   By a Minghui correspondent in Liaoning Province

(Minghui.org) An Anshan City pharmacist was tried on October 18 on charges of using a cult to undermine law enforcement, a standard pretext used by the Chinese communist regime in its attempt to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners.

Ms. Dai Yajuan’s lawyer argued that no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong and that his client should never have been prosecuted for exercising her constitutional right to freedom of belief.

He also questioned the authenticity of the prosecution evidence and protested against the police’s violation of legal procedures.

Ms. Dai was seized from home on June 28. None of the officers showed any IDs or search warrants. The police drove her to the police station before returning to ransack her home.

By law, the police must fill out a search warrant return – an itemization of seized property, and the arrested person must be present when the police tallies the confiscated items. Ms. Dai was never given a chance to see what was taken away from her home. Her family, who wasn’t present during the police raid, later discovered that all her jewelry was gone.

The indictment mentioned the number of confiscated Falun Gong books in two places, one saying 163 copies while the other 169 copies.

The lawyer acknowledged that Ms. Dai indeed owned some Falun Gong books – though not as many as claimed by the police – but her possession was lawful and caused no harm to anyone or society at large, let alone undermined law enforcement.

There was another piece of prosecution evidence stating that the police interrogated Ms. Dai on July 4 and secured her signature on some paperwork. She testified that no officer visited the detention center to question her on that day.

The lawyer requested that the judge dismiss the prosecution evidence and acquit his client.

The judge adjourned the session without issuing a verdict.