(Minghui.org) An elderly father dropped the lawyer he hired for his son upon the police's urging, only to learn one month later that he had been deceived. Instead of releasing his son as promised, the police got the younger man indicted and put on trial.
Mr. Zheng Hua, a Hefei City, Anhui Province resident, is facing 3-7 years of imprisonment for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Zheng, a taxi driver, was arrested on the evening of November 3, 2017 for passing out a Falun Gong pamphlet to a passenger, Song Panfeng, who happened to be a police officer.
The police submitted Mr. Zheng's case to Shushan District Court with the charge of “undermining law enforcement,” a standard pretext used by the communist authorities to imprison Falun Gong practitioners.
Mr. Zheng's father hired a lawyer for him. After the police found out, they told the elderly man that they'd release his son soon if he dropped the lawyer. He believed them and dismissed the lawyer. He also told Mr. Zheng that he would be released soon.
While Mr. Zheng's father was waiting for his release, the Shushan District Procuratorate submitted Mr. Zheng's case to Shushan District Court. The judge appointed a lawyer to represent Mr. Zheng and enter a guilty plea for him, without his consent or notification of his father.
Mr. Zheng mailed a letter to his father one month after the hearing. Only then did his father realize that he had been deceived by the police.
Mr. Zheng is the sole breadwinner at home. He has two children attending elementary school. His parents are both advanced in age and having some medical problems. While Mr. Zheng remains detained and faces imprisonment, his family is struggling to make ends meet.
