(Minghui.org) Mr. Lu Yunlai and Ms. Zhang Yaqin from Haicheng, Liaoning Province, were each sentenced to four years' imprisonment for practicing Falun Gong. Mr. Lu has filed an appeal.
The Haicheng Court rendered its decision on October 24, 2014 but did not deliver the written judgment to the practitioners or inform their family members. Mr. Lu's daughter, Lu Peng, learned of the sentence only when she inquired at the courthouse two days later.
Mr. Lu, 63, and Ms. Zhang, 60, were arrested in Nantai Market on April 21, 2014 and taken to Haicheng Detention Center, where they were detained for six months before the trial. Police also ransacked Mr. Lu's home.
Participating in the arrest were the secretary of Ranjia Village, Yanjun Town, and four officers from Yanjun Police Station, Nantai Police Station, and Haicheng and Anshan Domestic Security Divisions.
The two practitioners were tried by Haicheng Court on September 16, 2014. Their families had hired lawyers from Beijing, who pleaded not guilty on the practitioners' behalf.
During the trial, a defense lawyer stated, "Falun Gong is not a cult," rejecting Communist Party rhetoric used to incite public hatred against practitioners as part of the regime's violent persecution campaign. When the judge stopped him, the lawyer replied, “If you don't let me say it, I want it noted in the record.”
The court informed the families just two days before the trial and allowed only two of the practitioners' family members to attend.
