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Harbin Court Plans Illegal Trial of Woman in Critical Condition

September 16, 2014 |   By a Minghui correspondent from Heilongjiang province

(Minghui.org) A Harbin court planned a September 11 pretrial conference to carry out the prosecution of Ms. Zhang Haixia (张海霞), a Falun Gong practitioner in critical condition. The result of the meeting is unknown at the time of writing.

The woman is currently detained in Room 201, Internal Medicine Ward 2, Heilongjiang No. 5 Hospital in Harbin. Her attending physician, Dr. Wang Puliang, issued “notice of critical condition” to her family and mentioned that her potassium levels were abnormal.

Her family has not been able to see her at the hospital.

Liu Fang (刘芳), director of the Harbin No. 2 Detention Center, told her daughter on a September 6 phone call: “You have visited the hospital to try to see Zhang. We have had internal discussions about that and decided that you may not see her. You may write a letter to your mother. You need to tell her to cooperate with us. You cannot write anything else. Call me after you are done with the letter. You are not allowed to go to the hospital.”

Ms. Zhang's family learned that the detention center had sent the critical condition notice to the court and informed court officials to “change compulsory measures.” According to China's criminal law, the court may make various adjustments for defendants who are critically ill or pregnant.

Nonetheless, the court appears to to be pushing the prosecution forward. The nationwide policy of persecuting Falun Gong takes precedence over the law in today's China.

The September 11 pre-trial conference was scheduled after an illegal trial on August 20. Prior to the trial, Ms. Zhang was sent to the hospital from the detention center.

During the trial, the judge drove two defense lawyers out of the courtroom and tried to coerce the family into changing lawyers. When the family refused to comply, he adjourned the session.

Ms. Zhang was arrested along with her husband Mr. Wen Yingzhou (文英洲) at their home on June 18, 2014. Their home was ransacked at the same time. The police took away two bank books with over 60,000 yuan deposit, over 40 Zhuan Falun books, two printers, over 200 pamphlets containing information about the persecution, and a satellite dish.

Ms. Zhang had a heart attack then and was sent to the Heilongjiang Province Hospital Emergency Room. She was later transferred to Harbin Detention Center. To protest the illegal arrest, Ms. Zhang has been on hunger strike.

The person in charge for Ms. Zhang’s case at the Xiangfang court is Guo Xiangxi (郭相喜). The president of the court is Liu Lubin (刘鲁滨).