(Minghui.org) “I would like to acquit you, but I can’t make the decision alone. All three members of the judicial panel must agree. I received over a hundred calls a day [from Falun Gong practitioners], and everyone in the Acheng District knows me now. I’m the one who’s been handling Falun Gong cases, and those stickers about me you practitioners put up around town have made me notorious in Acheng.”
The above is what presiding judge Wang Weichen said in response to Ms. Li Hongmei’s request to be acquitted at her trial on September 3, 2026, for her faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Li, 65, from Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on August 21, 2025, along with three other practitioners: Ms. Liu Shuzhen, around 70; Mr. Shi Zuosheng, 74; and his wife, Ms. Chen Xiumei, 54.
The Acheng District Police Department combined the four cases into one despite their objections. Judge Wang from the Acheng District Court was very rude to the practitioners in earlier hearings. He denied their requests to hold in-person hearings and dared them to sue him.
Many practitioners called judge Wang, urging him to drop the case. They also put up stickers around town saying he was prosecuting law-abiding citizens. His attitude changed in the latest hearing on September 3.
The Acheng District Court held the first hearing on March 30, 2026. It was virtual despite the four practitioners’ objection. By law, a judge cannot hold a virtual hearing without the defendant’s consent.
Due to Ms. Chen’s severe hearing loss and the poor Internet connectivity resulting in blurry visuals and audio-video desynchronization, judge Wang had to stop the first hearing midway through.
The second virtual hearing was scheduled for April 13, 2026, but it never took place because three of the practitioners refused to attend in protest of judge Wang’s repeated denials of their requests for in-person hearings. Wang called the detention center multiple times but the practitioners stood their ground, so Wang canceled the hearing.
A third hearing, again virtual despite the practitioners’ objections, did take place as scheduled on April 29, 2026. Ms. Li protested the virtual hearing because it would not allow her to fully testify in her own defense as would be possible during an in-person session. The guards did not force her to attend, but lied to judge Wang by saying that Ms. Li refused to attend the virtual hearing because she believed she was innocent. Wang tried her in absentia that day and held another hearing of her case on September 3. The latest hearing was likely an in-person session but remains to be confirmed.
Ms. Li and the other three practitioners remain in detention and are awaiting verdicts.
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