(Minghui.org) A Qingzhou City resident was tried on August 31 for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
This is not the first time that Ms. Dong Guiwen has been targeted for her faith. She had been given forced labor and prison sentences in the past, but she never stopped her efforts to tell people that the persecution is wrong.
Her latest arrest took place on March 7 of this year after being reported to police for talking to people about Falun Gong.
During her August trial, her lawyer, Mr. Xiong Dongmei, argued that no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong and that his client should never have been prosecuted in the first place.
Judge Zheng Xuejun kept interrupting Ms. Dong when it was her turn to testify.
Prosecutor Dou Yitao alleged that there were several witnesses who reported on Ms. Dong, but he failed to produce any of them in court to face cross examination.
As the judge and the prosecutor struggled to refute Mr. Xiong’s defense arguments, their attitudes gradually softened.
Prosecutor Dou eventually conceded, “The Chinese communist party has been persecuting Falun Gong for many years, and many practitioners have indeed been wrongly convicted.”
Judge Zheng even pulled Mr. Xiong to the side after the hearing and asked, “Why do you think the government dared not stipulate in law that Falun Gong is a banned practice?”
Mr. Xong replied, “The Chinese communist regime is the only power in the world that opposes Falun Gong.”
