(Minghui.org) Two locals in Fushun City, Liaoning Province, were tried on October 31, 2019, for refusing to give up their faith in Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Judge Tian Hao of the Dongzhou District Court interrupted Ms. Jia Xiuhua's lawyer’s defense and warned that he wasn’t allowed to enter a “not guilty” plea for his client or talk about Falun Gong.
The lawyer took issue with the judge’s unlawful request and argued that there is no law that says practicing Falun Gong is a crime and that his client didn’t violate any law by distributing information about it.
He pointed out that, while the prosecutor accused his clients of “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used by the authorities to frame Falun Gong practitioners, no evidence was ever presented to show which law was undermined or how.
It is unclear whether or not Ms. Wang Weiju had legal representation.
Ms. Jia, 58, the director of the local tax bureau before she retired, was arrested on April 19, 2019, while visiting another practitioner, Ms. Wang. The police targeted the two women because they had been discovered distributing information about Falun Gong.
The police ransacked Ms. Jia’s home and confiscated her two laptops and many other personal belongings. She and Ms. Wang were taken to Fushun City Detention Center later that day.
The local procuratorate approved the practitioners’ arrests on April 30.