(Minghui.org) Attorneys defending two Falun Gong practitioners urged the court to release them and prosecute the arresting officers in accordance with criminal law.

Two attorneys represented the practitioners, and said that officers from the Yongle Police Station had acted illegally when they arrested Ms. Zhou Gaiqing, 72, and her son Mr. Meng Xiangjun.

They also stated that the police were guilty of trespassing and vandalism, as they broke into Ms. Zhou's home without a search warrant and ransacked it.

The attorneys pointed out that the officers confiscated 80,000 yuan but did not record it on the list of confiscated property. Thus, they were also guilty of theft.

When the attorneys asked the prosecutor to produce evidence for any of Ms. Zhou's “illegal actions”, they were unable to do so.

The trial was held at Tiexi District Court in Anshan City on January 22, 2015.

The Arrest

Yongle Police broke into Ms. Zhou's home on July 21, 2014. They arrested Ms. Zhou, her daughter Ms. Meng Yanli, her son Mr. Meng Xiangjun, and Mr. Sun Jinjun, a practitioner visiting their home. They took more than 50,000 yuan from Mr. Meng and a lot of cash from Ms. Zhou. The four practitioners were taken to the Yongle Police Station.

When Ms. Zhou's daughter was interrogated, officer Chang Yongchu beat her around the head. They later handcuffed her to an iron chair, and stomped on her feet. One officer hit her face with his boot so hard that she could not hear anything afterward.

The four practitioners were transferred to a detention center the next day.

When Ms. Meng was released 12 days later, the police told her that both her mother's home and her home had been ransacked.

Ms. Meng noticed that over 13,000 yuan was missing from her home, and many other items not recorded on the police's confiscation list were also missing.

Parties involved in the persecution of the above practitioners:

Jin Jun, director of the Tiexi District Police Department: +86-412-8257111 (Work), +86-412-5551033 (Home), +86-13804200011 (Cell)Chang Yongchun, officer from the Yongle Police Station: +86-15698905851 (Cell)Zhang Youmin, president of the Tiexi District Court: +86-421-2983555 (Work), +86-13609806555 (Cell)Tong Shouhui, judge at the Tiexi District Court: +86-412-2983556 (Work), +86-1394122919 (Cell)Zhang Yu, prosecutor from the Tiexi District Procuratorate: +86-15541256667 (Cell), +86-18004120560 (Cell)