(Minghui.org) “Why listen to a lawyer, we can sentence someone even without any evidence,” a captain from the domestic security division said to the daughter of Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Hu Qingbin, who is currently held at the Xixie Detention Center in Pingdingshan City.
What the captain said became true. The Xinhua District Court secretly sentenced Mr. Hu to four years in prison on June 15, 2015 without notifying his family.
Mr. Hu's family found out when one of his family members went to the court on June 18 and questioned the court staff.
Mr. Hu was arrested when going for a haircut on September 23, 2014. His family hired a lawyer. However, officers from the domestic security division called the justice bureau that the lawyer belonged to, and refused the lawyer's involvement.
The detention center claimed that Mr. Hu refused to hire a lawyer. They threatened Mr. Hu's families that if they hired a lawyer, Mr. Hu would never get out of prison. Family visits are denied.
Background
Mr. Hu just retired from the position of the deputy director of the Economic Prosecutor Branch of the Trade and Industry Bureau. Before that he was a regiment-level commander in the Chinese military. He was recognized as a good official and a wonderful person by everyone who dealt with him.
After he began to practice Falun Gong, he set even higher standards for himself. He was incorruptible, not like many Chinese officials today.
Mr. Hu was arrested by officers from Guangming Road Police Station, Pingdingshan City Domestic Security Division, and Lushan Domestic Security Division. The police searched him, took his home key and ransacked his home. Without his or his families' agreement, the police confiscated Falun Dafa books, printers, paper cutters, two computers, currency with information about Falun Gong written on them, and other personal belongings. The police refused to give a list of the confiscated items.
Mr. Hu was given a physical check-up when he was taken to the detention center the next day. He was found to have high blood pressure and thus the detention center would not take him. But a deputy director of the police department forced the detention center to admit him, and extorted 3,000 yuan from Mr. Hu's brother as a medical deposit.
