(Minghui.org) The trial of four residents from Zhuzhou City, on Human Rights Day, was quickly adjourned after their lawyer protested the human rights violations of his clients by the local judicial system.
The four defendants were tried on December 10, 2015, for their belief in Falun Gong, a spiritual practice being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
When they told their lawyer that they had been taken to the courthouse without advance notice, the lawyer immediately raised an objection to the judge. By law, the court must notify defendants of their court appearances in advance.
The lawyer further requested the recusal of the public prosecutor, who issued a decision to dismiss the four practitioners' case on September 2 this year, only to reverse it the very next day without any valid explanation. With the prosecutor's new “arrest approved” decision, the case moved through the Procuratorate to reach the court for the December trial.
One official told the lawyer after the prosecutor's flip-flop that the Procuratorate was under pressure from higher-ups to reverse the decision, and that the judicial system was just a “rubber stamp.”
The judge didn't recuse the prosecutor as requested, but he adjourned the trial shortly after the lawyer protested the court's violations of legal procedure and his client's human rights.
The four Falun Gong practitioners, all in their sixties, looked disheveled during the hearing. Ms. Liu Baiyin and Ms. Zeng Xiyin did not have winter coats with them when they were brought into the courtroom.
Ms. Liu Fangxiang's health had declined while in detention, but her son's plea to get her released on medical parole was denied.
Mr. Guo Wenxin is being held in the Zhuzhou No. 2 Detention Center, while the three women are being held at the Zhuzhou No. 1 Detention Center.
