(Minghui.org) Ms. Chu Qingzhen was set to stand trial for her faith in Falun Gong on January 20, 2025. That morning, her husband, Mr. Song Xuechun, also a practitioner, was arrested as he left their apartment building. He had been notified two days before that he was not allowed to represent his wife in court as a non-lawyer defender.
Ms. Chu of Laiyang City, Shandong Province, was later sentenced to two years and her husband to three and a half years.
The couple’s ordeal stemmed from Ms. Chu’s arrest on October 29, 2024. Chi Weiqing and two other officers broke into her home that afternoon and confiscated her Falun Gong books, informational materials, printer, and computer. The police targeted her after discovering that she had recently purchased a computer online and suspected that she was planning to use it to produce Falun Gong materials.
Ms. Chu was held in the Muyudian Police Station overnight before being transferred to the Yantai City Detention Center in the Fushan District. Yantai oversees Laiyang City.
Mr. Song urged officer Chi to drop the case against his wife, but Chi submitted it to the Laiyang City Procuratorate on November 6, 2024.
Around January 15, 2025, the Laiyang City Court notified Mr. Song that his wife’s court date was set for five days later. He submitted an application to represent her as a family defender, then took time off work to review the case file and visit his wife in the detention center.
On January 18, 2025, Mr. Song received a court notice saying he was not allowed to defend his wife in court. There was no reason given, but he was told, “You’ll know why later on.”
Mr. Song decided to represent his wife anyway. On the morning of January 20, he gathered up is his defense statement to go to the courthouse. As he left his apartment building, several officers who had been waiting outside seized him and raided his home. His daughter, a graduate student home on winter break, was also taken into custody. She was interrogated and later released. Mr. Song was taken to the Laiyang City Detention Center.
As this was unfolding, Ms. Chu was escorted to the courtroom. The judge halted her hearing midway through.
The couple’s daughter spent Chinese New Year’s day, January 29, comforting her three grandparents, who all live with her parents, who care for them. Both of her parents were later sentenced to prison, exactly when is unknown.
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