(Minghui.org) A Chengdu City, Sichuan Province resident is facing trial for her faith in Falun Gong. Her lawyer wasn't able to get the local court to accept his application to represent her until the fourth try.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Wang Yingxia's lawyer went to the Gaoxin District Court shortly after her indictment by the Gaoxin District Procuratorate on May 8, 2019, to submit the documents required to represent her.

The court staff refused to take the documents from the lawyer, claiming that Ms. Wang's case wasn't in their system. 

The lawyer returned to Guangdong Province, where he is based. He later mailed his application to the court twice, but the court said they never received it. 

The lawyer returned to the court, over 1,000 miles from Guangdong, to submit his application materials in mid-September 2019. This time he managed to find the judge in charge of the case and handed the documents to the judge in person. 

Fearing that the judge might hold a secret hearing of his client, the lawyer repeatedly said to the judge, “Be sure to let me know when you schedule a hearing.” 

Ms. Wang was arrested on August 27, 2018 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. The police ransacked her daughter's home, where she was staying to help care for her newborn grandson, and confiscated her Falun Gong related materials. She has been held at Chengdu City Detention Center since September 10, 2018.

Ms. Wang is not the only Falun Gong practitioner whose lawyers have had trouble submitting applications to represent them. Also in September 2019, the lawyer for Ms. Huang Xiangling, another Falun Gong practitioner in Chengdu City, was told that the Xindu District Court had no record of registering her case. 

The lawyer later found the judge in charge of the case, who not only acknowledged receipt of the case but also revealed how many years he was planning to sentence Ms. Huang.