(Minghui.org) Four Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, residents made their second court appearance in the Linghai City Court on November 8, 2023, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
The four Falun Gong practitioners, including Ms. Yu Jing, 55, Ms. Wang Yinghua, Mr. Wang Jingzhong (no relation to Ms. Wang), and Ms. Dai Xiuhua, 59, were arrested between March 9 and 12, 2023, after being monitored by the police for months. The police staked outside their homes, shadowed them on foot or in cars, took pictures of them, and even installed tracking devices on their electric bikes and button-sized listening devices on their doors.
The police later submitted the practitioners’ cases to the Linghai City Procuratorate, which indicted them and moved their cases to the Linghai City Court. A joint hearing of their cases was held on October 31, 2023, with a second hearing taking place eight days later. Except for Ms. Dai, the other three practitioners hired lawyers to represent them. One of the three practitioners was also represented by two non-lawyer family defenders.
Linghai City is under the administration of Jinzhou City. Both the Linghai City Procuratorate and Linghai City Court have been designated to handle Falun Gong cases in the region.
Lawyer’s Request to Remove Clients’ Restraints Repeatedly Denied During First Court Hearing
The practitioners were handcuffed and shackled when they appeared in court on October 31. One of their lawyers, Sheng (alias), requested that the handcuffs and shackles be removed, but presiding judge Huang Yanchun rejected his request and signaled for the hearing to start.
About 40 minutes in, Sheng again requested that the practitioners be removed from restraints; otherwise, he’d request that Huang be recused from the trial.
Huang then ordered a brief break. After the session resumed, Sheng noted that the practitioners were still handcuffed and shackled. Huang announced that a collegial panel of judges had a discussion during the break and ruled to still keep the practitioners restrained.
Sheng then read out aloud item 3 of Article 16 in the “People’s Court Judicial Police Criminal Trial Policing Guarantee Rules” (which the Supreme People’s Court issued in 2009): “During court hearings, the defendants shall be removed from restraints unless they may face life or death sentence, or have shown signs that they may escape, hurt others, commit suicide, or inflict self-harm.”
Sheng argued that, based on the rules, his clients should be removed from restraints. Huang said no because the four practitioners may commit suicide or inflict self-harm per their Falun Gong teachings. Sheng and another lawyer immediately refuted that Falun Gong prohibits killing, including suicide, and teaches people to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They pointed out that the communist regime demonized Falun Gong to justify its persecution of the peaceful spiritual discipline.
Judge Huang refused to listen and said the lawyers could not guarantee that their clients would never kill themselves or others; hence they should remain restrained given the policing guarantee rules. He added that the practitioners’ cases were very severe and they refused to plead guilty. He soon adjourned the hearing.
Majority of Family Members Barred from Attending the Second Hearing
The court notified the practitioners’ lawyers and family defenders that a second hearing was scheduled for 9 a.m. on November 8, but when they arrived in court that morning, they learned that the start time had been changed to 9:30 a.m. without their knowledge. The session was further delayed until 10:10 a.m. when it finally started. One of the lawyers had to leave early due to another hearing scheduled for later in the day.
Nearly 30 family members of the four practitioners came to the courthouse that day. Just when they were about to enter the courtroom after hours of waiting, they were stopped by the bailiffs, who claimed that only two people from each family would be allowed to attend.
One family member argued that by law they should all be allowed to attend the open hearing as long as they showed their IDs. A bailiff responded, “Don’t talk about law with me. Whose family are you from?” In the end, only eight family members were allowed into the courtroom. The rest of them waited in the hallway. As the hallway didn’t have a heat supply, they were shivering because of the low temperature.
Meanwhile, the bailiff let two average-height men with glasses into the courtroom. The practitioners’ families suspected that the two men were officials from the 610 Office or the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, both extra-legal agencies tasked with overseeing the persecution of Falun Gong.
Lawyer Sheng also questioned judge Huang for barring the practitioners’ families from attending the hearing. Huang gave three excuses. The first was that the case was sensitive, as the practitioners were charged with “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization.” The second excuse was that three of the four practitioners refused to plead guilty. The third excuse was that there were too many family members and she blocked most of them from attending the hearing in order to ensure proper order during the session and to protect the defendants’ legal rights. She threatened to punish Sheng if he continued to “deliberately disrupt court order.”
Refuting Groundless Allegations and Shaky Evidence
The three lawyers and two family defenders representing Ms. Yu, Ms. Wang, and Mr. Wang entered a not-guilty plea for them. They argued that while prosecutor Li Feng accused their clients of “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” he failed to specify what roles the practitioners allegedly played in what cult organization undermined law enforcement or caused what harm to which victims.
Most importantly, no law ever criminalizes Falun Gong in China and it’s their clients’ freedom of belief and expression to practice Falun Gong and tell people about it.
Lawyer Sheng pointed out that none of the witnesses listed by the prosecutor appeared in court to accept cross-examination and some of the witness accounts didn’t even have their signatures as required by law. The prosecutor also failed to present the Falun Gong-related items confiscated from the practitioners that had been listed as prosecution evidence.
Ms. Yu and Ms. Wang detailed how they were roughed up by the police during their arrests.
Ms. Yu was slapped in the face ten times by a male police officer. She was found to have a tumor in her abdomen during the required physical examination and the doctor suggested an immediate operation. The police, however, still held her in custody and refused to provide medical treatment to her.
Ms. Wang was pushed to the ground by a few plainclothes officers while walking on the street. They then arrested her without showing their IDs.
Mr. Wang appeared to be confused when he was answering questions during the hearing. His family suspected that he was abused in custody, which resulted in his declining health, as he was perfectly healthy before his arrest.
Lawyer and Family Defender Intimidated Prior to Hearing
Prior to the second hearing, judge Huang attempted to pressure the son of a practitioner to quit being his mother’s family defender. He didn’t comply. The law firm that Sheng works at also received an intimidating letter, but he insisted on representing the practitioner in court.
Lawyer Sheng said that the court notified him of the second hearing in the form of a subpoena, but not the other two lawyers. He suspected that judge Huang did so in retaliation against him for requesting the practitioners’ restraints be removed. He said he had never been “subpoenaed” before in his decades-long legal career. He felt humiliated and demanded judge Huang and the court’s president to apologize to him. Huang gave an excuse to not issue an apology during the second hearing.
Related report in Chinese:
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Four Liaoning Residents to Stand Trial for Practicing Falun Gong
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