(Minghui.org) At the beginning of August 2012, lawyer Xie Yanyi in Beijing received a phone call from Zhao Lizuo from the Kaiping District Court in Tangshan City, Hebei Province. Zhao requested that the lawyer go to the local lawyer's association and police station to get a certificate that would prove that he did not practice Falun Gong. Lawyer Xie could not understand Mr. Zhao's request.
What was the actual reason for this phone call?
On February 25, practitioner Li Wendong from Tangshan City was arrested and detained, together with several other practitioners. Mr. Li was detained at the Tangshan City First Detention Center, where he was beaten until he was covered with bruises. While he was in the detention center, his mouth was sealed with tape and, as a form of torture, he was subjected to force-feeding. Mr. Li's wife was very worried about him and hired lawyer Xie Yanyi from Beijing to defend him.
As to the court's phone call, on the surface, it was an attempt to verify that lawyer Xie didn't practice Falun Gong, but it revealed some other things.
First, the Kaiping District Court was breaking the law. Any lawyer knows that as long as a lawyer is licensed, he or she can defend for the person involved. No organization or government department is allowed to demand extra requirements.
Second, currently in mainland China the judiciary system is not independent or unbiased at all, especially when it involves Falun Gong. Since 1999 when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong, in the past more than 10 years, countless facts have indicated that the police system, the procurators and courts have lost their independence. Instead, they are closely following the 610 Office. The 610 Office is outside of the law, and illegally arrests and sentences practitioners at will. The legal system at all levels is simply acting as puppets. In such an environment, the court had to make the phone call even though it was against the law.
Third, more and more people are awakening and are against the persecution. Even under great pressure, Falun Gong practitioners kept telling people the facts in a variety of ways. They told people what Falun Gong is and why the CCP is frightened of Falun Gong. More and more people now know the facts and have made a wise choice to distance themselves from the Party. Thus more and more lawyers are standing up to defend Falun Gong practitioners, and more and more people are speaking out to support practitioners. For example, we saw the recent “300 fingerprints”, “562 fingerprints” in Hebei Province and the “1500 fingerprints” in northeast China, where people signed petitions in support of Falun Gong practitioners. At least two such events happened in Tangshan City. Facing the stronger and stronger public outcry against the persecution, the 610 Office can only secretly harass righteous lawyers to prevent them from defending practitioners.
Fourth, the CCP is now teetering on the brink of collapse, and any righteous action could be the last straw that breaks the camel's back. Looking back over the more than 10 years of persecution against Falun Gong, Jiang's regime tried to mobilize the entire country to execute his murderous policy: “to stain their reputation, to ruin them financially, and to eliminate them physically”. However, millions of practitioners have persisted in their belief and have endured through all these years under incredible pressure. Furthermore, they spread Falun Gong to more than one hundred countries all over the world and have received countless awards. As the persecution has continued, more and more Chinese have seen through the Communist Party's lies, and are freeing themselves from the horror by quitting the CCP and its associated organizations. The regime is putting up a last ditch struggle--that's why they unreasonably requested this lawyer to prove that he doesn't practice Falun Gong.
From this phone call, we can get a sense that the Communist Party is coming to an end. So we hope that judges and policemen like Zhao Lizuo can tell right from wrong, make the right choice, and not be buried with the CCP.
