(Minghui.org) On August 10, 2012, perpetrators from the Zhengzhuangzi Central Court in Kaiping District, Tangshan, Hebei Province put four Falun Gong practitioners on trial, including Li Wendong, Yue Changcun, Zhang Guochen, and Yang Zheng. Lawyers including Xie Yanyi defended them. The following is an account of the trial.
Interference Prior to the Trial
Li Wendong was arrested by the police on the morning of February 25, and his house was ransacked. Li Yuemei, the wife of Li Wendong, was also detained the same day. During the entire time they were arresting practitioners, the police showed no identification. Even though it was known that the couple was persecuted, in the company where they worked, Tangshan Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., no one cared.
In order to rescue her husband, Li Yuemei asked for help and hired a lawyer to plead not guilty for Li Wendong. Li Yuemei knows that her husband has committed no crimes. Based on her own legal knowledge, she wrote appeal letters to various government departments, hoping that righteous people would lend a helping hand. Li Yuemei also directly contacted the Kaiping Domestic Security Division and demanded the return of the personal belongings they took away.
Their company management warned Li Yuemei to stop what she was doing and to distance herself from or divorce her husband. Yang Ji from the company's Domestic Security Division questioned Li Yuemei and tried to get information from her, such as how she found the lawyer, if she wrote the letters herself, and other questions. Li Yuemei requested that Li Wendong be told the news that her mother had passed away. However, the perpetrators in her company did not do it.
On August 7, 2012, Li Yuemei received notification of the trial date and asked for a day off to go to court with the lawyer and to visit her husband at the detention center. However, the company only allowed her a half-day off. During the trial, they insisted on taking Li Yuemei to the court in the company car.
In early August, Li Wendong's lawyer Xie Yanyi received a phone call from Zhao Lizuo from Kaiping Court requesting that she get a statement from the local bar association and the local police station to prove that the lawyer does not practice Falun Gong. The lawyer sternly rejected the request.
On the day of the trial, there were several police officers, both uniformed and plainclothes, outside of the courtroom. The police and police cars not only filled the streets around the court, but were also inside the nearby depot as well as in the residential areas. A camera patrol car kept driving back and forth around the area outside the courtroom, taking video recordings of everyone. The police ordered away all pedestrians in the area.
Streets filled with police, plainclothes officers, and police cars
A camera patrol car and police officers video recording people
Police and plainclothes officers outside the courtroom
All the practitioners present were being monitored. Several practitioners from Majiagou were sent back home, and some of them were still being watched even after they returned home. Some of the police watched them and took notes. Gao Zhaochen's trial was held on the same day, and his family car was forcibly searched. When the family demanded to see a search warrant, the police refused to show them any documents.
The police knew that Li Wendong's mother-in-law had passed away, but did not tell him.
Lawyers Admonish the Judge: Do Not Pay for the Communist Regime's Illegal Acts
In court, lawyer Xie Yanyi pointed out that the police arrested Li Wendong first and then searched for evidence afterwards. Due to Li Wen-dong's personal belief, he has been detained for nearly six months. The lawyer asserted that the law must not be twisted around and used as a tool by a handful of officials to achieve their personal goals. The lives of innocent people can not be ruined in exchange for political power or to satisfy personal interests! ...and the judges should think rationally and not support the regime's illegal acts and the monumental debt it is accumulating.
The lawyer made it very clear that Li Wendong's modifying his printer and having Falun Gong materials does not constitute a crime!
While lawyer Xie Yanyi was speaking, the judge Zhao Lizuo kept hammering on the gavel to interrupt his questions. After the judge had done this several times, Zhang Guochen's lawyer Wang Quanzhang reminded the judge, “Please don't hammer the gavel at will.” Zhao Lizuo restrained himself a bit after that.
