(Minghui.org) A Changchun City resident was tried for his faith without his family or lawyer’s knowledge. The presiding judge refused to answer when asked to provide an explanation of the apparent violation of law.
Mr. Zhang Wenxiu was taking out the trash on March 9, 2016, when he was ambushed by three plainclothes agents. They ransacked his home and confiscated personal items valued at a total of 10,000 yuan.
The police targeted Mr. Zhang because he refused to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
Mr. Zhang’s lawyer submitted paperwork to represent him on May 17. When the two met again on July 23, Mr. Zhang told his lawyer that the court had delivered his indictment to the detention center and that a court official tried to pressure him to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence.
“I committed no crime and I do not acknowledge any guilt,” Mr. Zhang told his lawyer of what he said to the court official.
The lawyer, however, never received the indictment as required by law. Both he and Mr. Zhang’s family also had trouble getting information about the case with the prosecutor and the judge.
Between May and August, the prosecutor and the judge turned down a total of 8 meeting requests by the lawyer and Mr. Zhang’s family, who were kept in the dark of Mr. Zhang’s case development.
Mr. Zhang’s family visited the courthouse again on September 23 and was finally able to talk to the judge on the phone. They were shocked to learn that Mr. Zhang had been tried, but the judge hung up the phone when they questioned why the lawyer and family were not informed of the trial.
