(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Xue Li was tried in the Daowai District Court in Harbin City on September 6, 2017. The presiding judge and the procurator specifically prohibited her and her lawyer from speaking the two words “Falun Gong.”
Ms. Xue, 49, distributed Falun Gong informational materials outside the gate of the Harbin Industrial Technological School on April 18. The police illegally arrested her and ransacked her home the next day. They seized her cell phone, Falun Gong amulets, and over 10,000 yuan in cash.
She was placed in detention and her arrest warrant was approved eight days later. Her case was submitted to the Daowai District Procurator on May 10. She is now being held at the Harbin No. 2 Detention Center.
Ms. Xue’s lawyer visited her on August 15 and requested to see her file. However, the judge refused to let him read the case file before the August 16 trial.
The lawyer protested, stating that under existing law, the lawyer should be notified of a trial and given a reasonable length of time to read the case and prepare his client's defense. Furthermore, his client needed to be notified of a trial three days before the trial date. Ms. Xue was not informed of the trial. The judge ignored the lawyer's complaint. Only after the lawyer went to the Office of Ombudsman and issued a complaint, was the trial postponed.
Mr. Xue was tried on the morning of September 6. Photos of the Falun Gong informational materials confiscated from her home were presented as “criminal evidence.” The lawyer objected, stating that photos cannot be used as material evidence.
The procurator interrupted and stopped the lawyer whenever he mentioned Falun Gong. The judge said that it was a “sensitive term” that had been banned from usage. The lawyer countered that the National Publication Bureau voided the publications ban on Falun Gong books in 2011, which meant that Falun Gong was indeed legal.
Ms. Xue was given the opportunity to make a final statement, but was stopped after having said only two sentences: “Jiang Zemin persecuted Falun Gong. Falun Gong is embraced all over the world...”
The judge interrupted her, saying she said the “sensitive term.” He then abruptly ended the session.
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