(Minghui.org) I am an attorney in China. I recently witnessed the following illegal and irresponsible conduct in the People's Court of Qingdao City, Shandong Province.

1. The Court forced defense attorneys to work with the judges and do things against the interests of their clients. If the defense attorneys refused to cooperate, the court threatened them.

2. The Court denied Falun Dafa practitioners of their right to hire lawyers. The court attempted to interfere with the work of the lawyers who had already been hired by the practitioners.

3. The Court even interfered with civil cases involving Falun Dafa practitioners, such as divorce cases.

4. Several judges in the People's Court in the Shinan District of Qingdao were implicated in engaging in unlawful behavior after Nie Lei, a local notorious gangster, was arrested. Shinan District People's Court has been unable to function ever since. A lot of cases have passed the trial deadlines, and the petitioners and lawyers have no channels through which to appeal.

5. The “director” of the Appeals Office of Qingdao City Middle Court is not really the director. The timetable to meet with petitioners is also fake. I know this after being in the reception room of the Appeals Office for several days. The “director” who appeared at the director's office hours was not the director. Also, if someone went to the Appeals Office according to the official timetable, he or she would be told that the director was "in a meeting, a forum, or out of office."

6. After putting blame on temporary workers, the Court now has come up with the idea of interns. There is no one managing the documents and materials from the petitioners. I noticed that many people had to go to the court multiple times just to drop off their documents. The receptionist job in the court has high turnover, so when a petitioner goes to the court to inquire into the progress of his case, he is often told that it was an intern who took his materials last time and misplaced them and that he has to resubmit them. The petitioners were often given the runaround.

This is what I witnessed personally in the courts in Qingdao.