(Minghui.org) A 72-year-old Maoming City, Guangdong Province resident stood trial on August 22, 2023 for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party.
Mr. Li Jun’s two lawyers defended his constitutional right to freedom of belief. His daughter, who wasn’t allowed to talk during the hearing, told the lawyers after the court session that the police had deceived her into signing statements incriminating her father and used that as prosecution evidence against him.
Arrest and Indictment
At 8 p.m. on February 14, 2023, Mr. Li had just finished dinner when over ten officers descended on his home and raided his residence. His over 30 Falun Gong books, computer, and 200 yuan paper currency printed with information about Falun Gong (as a way to overcome the information censorship in China) were confiscated. For a few days after his arrest, the police kept coming to his home and took photos. His family was terrified.
Mr. Li’s three daughters frequented the police station to seek his release. The police said the only condition for his release was that he sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong. As Mr. Li refused to comply, the police soon put him in criminal detention and refused to release him after the aforementioned annual meeting was over.
The Dianbai District Procuratorate approved Mr. Li’s arrest on March 24, 2023 and forwarded his case to the Maonan District Procuratorate on May 24. The latter procuratorate indicted him on June 8.
Court Hearing
The Maonan District Court held a hearing of Mr. Li’s case at the Maoming City No. 1 Detention Center, where he has been held since his arrest, on August 22, 2023.
Present at the hearing were prosecutor Cai Linhui, presiding judge Tan Wei (also the vice president of the court), assistant judges Ke Xuejun and Pan Chuanghua, and clerk Pan Yanting.
Two of Mr. Li’s three daughters were the only family members allowed to attend the hearing, with the rest of the courtroom seats occupied by people sent over by the local Political and Legal Affairs Committee, a non-judicial agency tasked with overseeing the persecution of Falun Gong.
Prosecutor Cai charged Mr. Li with “using a cult to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. Li’s lawyers refuted the allegations and emphasized that no enacted law in China has ever criminalized Falun Gong or identiftied it as a cult. Additionally, Mr. Li’s exercising of his constitutional right to practice Falun Gong didn’t cause any harm to any individual or society at large, much less undermine law enforcement.
According to Article 2 of the Criminal Procedure Law, the Criminal Procedure Law aims to ensure accurate and timely punishment of real criminals but also to protect the innocent from being wrongfully prosecuted. Mr. Li’s lawyers argued that the police and the prosecutor lacked legal basis to arrest and charge their client, thus failing to protect the innocent from being wrongfully prosecuted.
Cai alleged that Mr. Li’s oldest daughter “testified” that he sometimes went to the local market to distribute Falun Gong informational materials. Upon hearing this, Mr. Li’s daughter appeared very indignant but she was not allowed to say anything.
After the hearing was over, Mr. Li’s daughter immediately told the lawyers, “After my father was arrested, I was summoned to the police station for questioning. They asked me to sign the third page of a document without showing me the rest of it. I had never said or written that my father went to the market to distribute Falun Gong materials, and they must have put down the fabricated ‘testimonial’ in my name themselves. How despicable! I’m going to file complaints against them!”
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