(Minghui.org) A married couple in Beijing appeared in court twice, on February 24 and March 29, 2023, respectively, for their faith in Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong). Their lawyers entered not guilty pleas for them, and the presiding judge said that he would announce their verdicts soon.

Mr. Xu Xuekun

Ms. Bai Shuhui

Mr. Xu Xuekun, a 60-year-old sculptor, and Ms. Bai Shuhui, 61, live in the Fangshan District in Beijing. Both of them took up Falun Gong in 1997. The couple were arrested at home on January 13, 2022 and have been held at the Fangshan District Detention Center since. The police later submitted their cases to the Fangshan District Procuratorate and prosecutor Zhang Jun indicted them.

During their first hearing by the Fangshan District Court on February 24, 2023, judge Dong Jie barred Mr. Xie Yanyi, a well-known human rights lawyer who was hired by Ms. Bai, from entering the courtroom. Two other lawyers representing the couple were allowed to attend the hearing.

Because of his courageous representation of Falun Gong practitioners in the past, Mr. Xie’s law license was suspended. He continued to seek justice for Falun Gong practitioners, often representing them in court as a non-lawyer defender. Just days ago, on February 17, he was removed by a judge in Xinxiang City, Henan Province, during the hearing of another Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Suqin.

One of the couple’s lawyers questioned judge Dong why he barred Mr. Xie from entering the courtroom. The judge remained silent. Given the lawyers’ repeated requests for an answer, the judge adjourned the session.

The next hearing was scheduled for five weeks later on March 29. As Ms. Bai shouted “Falun Dafa is good” when she was escorted out of the detention center, the bailiffs covered her head with a black hood and handcuffed her behind her back. Upon arriving at the court, she asked to use the restroom, but the bailiffs wouldn’t let her. The bailiff relented as both she and her lawyers strongly protested the mistreatment. After she returned to the courtroom, the bailiff handcuffed her in the front.

The second hearing lasted one hour. The couple’s lawyers refuted the charges against their clients and argued that no law criminalizes Falun Gong in China.

The bailiff put the black hood back on Ms. Bai when taking her back to the detention center. They threatened her in the car, “The judge will definitely sentence you!”

This isn’t the first time the couple have been persecuted for their faith. For filing criminal complaints in November 2015 against Jiang Zemin, the former head of Chinese Communist Party who initiated the persecution, both of them were sentenced to twenty months in prison.

The police harassed them twice, on February 22 and April 22, 2020, respectively, ordered the villagers to follow them for a day on May 17, 2020, and blocked the road outside of their home with metal panels. The police harassed them again on August 6, 2021, only ten days after their previous harassment.