(Minghui.org) Ms. Liu Cong was arrested because she sought justice for her husband who was wrongfully sentenced for practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Liu is from Huludao City, Liaoning Province, and went to the Lianshan District Court for the second time on June 4, 2025. Ms. Liu’s two lawyers entered a not guilty plea for her and she also testified in her own defense.
Ms. Liu’s husband, Mr. Luan Changhui, a senior boat engineer, was arrested on July 20, 2021 and was sentenced to four years on November 30, 2021 by the Lianshan District Court. He was admitted to the Shenyang City First Prison on August 6, 2022.
Throughout Mr. Luan’s prosecution, Ms. Liu, also a Falun Gong practitioner, spent countless hours learning about the laws in China and represented him as his family defender. After he was sentenced, she filed an appeal with the Huludao City Intermediate Court. When the appeal as rejected, she filed a motion to reconsider the wrongful sentence. Meanwhile, with the knowledge she learned in the process, Ms. Liu began to offer free legal assistance to others who are also subjected to legal persecution by the communist regime. The authorities retaliated against her.
Around 5 a.m. on July 12, 2024, a woman knocked on Ms. Liu’s door and claimed to be her downstairs neighbor, and said she saw water leaking from upstairs. As soon as Ms. Liu opened the door, more than ten plainclothes officers barged in. Ms. Liu demanded to see their IDs. Only one person flashed a search warrant quickly. They raided the place and confiscated Ms. Liu’s laptop, cellphone, computer memory cards, Falun Gong books, photo of Falun Gong’s founder, car key, 2,000 yuan in cash and the legal materials she prepared for her husband’s case. She later learned that the officers who arrested her came from the Longgang District Domestic Security Division and its subordinate Xijie Police Station.
The police also harassed other Falun Gong practitioners that day, after they discovered through phone surveillance that they were in contact with Ms. Liu.
Ms. Liu was held at the Huludao City Detention Center. The police approved her arrest on July 26, 2024, with the excuse that Falun Gong materials were found in her home. They submitted her case to the Lianshan District Procuratorate on September 25.
Ms. Liu’s family and lawyer visited her on December 3. The lawyer visited her again on December 14. He and another lawyer submitted the power of attorney on December 19.
Ms. Liu appeared in the Lianshan District Court on February 18, 2025. Her two lawyers demanded the prosecutor Du Yang, exhibit all the prosecution evidence for cross examination. Du remained silent. The lawyers also raised questions about the authentication of the evidence, which Du was still unable to address.
The presiding judge Wang Yueqiu adjourned the hearing and returned the case to the police for additional evidence.
During the second hearing on June 4, 2025, Ms. Liu questioned the prosecutor and judge as to how having Falun Gong related materials and appealing for her husband led the prosecutor to charge her with “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” which has been the standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong practitioners in China. Judge Wang refused to answer her question.
Ms. Liu’s lawyers pointed out that the prosecution evidence was authenticated by the police, which was a violation of legal procedure, as only an independent, third-party agency could perform such a function. In addition, some of the documents lacked official signatures or seals, which rendered them inadmissible.
Another lawyer added that Ms. Liu was simply exercising her basic rights and upholding justice for her wrongly convicted husband. The authorities should look into the wrongful case she raised in her appeal, rather than retaliating against her.
Ms. Liu further mentioned that the Chinese Press and Publication Administration lifted the ban on Falun Gong publications in 2011 and that no law in China made it a crime to practice Falun Gong. She said that one shouldn’t be prosecuted for one’s thoughts, much less faith. In the past 26 years, countless Falun Gong practitioners were wrongly sentenced, simply for upholding their belief in Falun Gong’s principles: “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.” Falun Gong is practiced in most countries and regions in the world, and it’s only persecuted in its country of origin, China. She then challenged the prosecutor to give evidence regarding which law’s enforcement was undermined by her or what damage she caused to any individuals or society at large.
One lawyer said, according to China’s criminal law, in order to convict a suspect of a crime, the prosecution bears the burden of proof to show the four elements of a crime: 1) the suspect is mentally competent and understands the consequences of their actions, 2) the suspect must have had a criminal intent to cause harm, 3) the suspect must have committed a criminal act, and 4) the criminal act must have violated the legal rights of others (for instance, the criminal act of murder violates the victim’s legal right to live). Given Ms. Liu’s situation, she had no intent to harm anyone, nor was anyone actually harmed by her. It’s her basic legal right to appeal for her husband, which didn’t violate any law.
Another lawyer said the authorities were using legal means to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, which was abuse of power and trampling on the law. The Constitution guarantees citizens’ right to freedom of belief and the Criminal Law has strict provisions on the four elements of a crime, but the prosecutor failed to establish how Ms. Liu’s action had violated any of the laws. It’s only because the Chinese Communist Party is persecuting Falun Gong that the practitioners are taking actions to counteract the persecution. After two plus decades of persecution, countless families were torn apart, but the practitioners never resorted to violence to resist. On the other hand, the Communist Party keeps escalating it’s persecution tactics in order to crush practitioners.
The judge kept trying to stop the lawyers from talking. She adjourned the hearing without announcing a verdict.
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