As the movement for judicial reform gains strength in China, the practice of arbitrarily sentencing Falun Gong practitioners to prisons and forced labor camps is sometimes replaced by elaborate legal maneuvering.
Shijiazhuang City Intermediate Court Sentenced Mr. Song Aichang Illegally
On June 22, 2007, Mr. Song Aichang, a Falun Gong practitioner from Shijiazhuang City, was arrested at home by local police and has been held in a detention center ever since.
The first trial involved three court appearances. On September 22, 2008, after Mr. Song had been detained for over nine months, during the first trial, Qiaoxi District Court sentenced him to three years in prison.
Mr. Song appealed the sentence to the Intermediate Court in Shijiazhuang City. His attorney and family members filed appeals and complaints on several points of law in the first trial including; incorrect application of the law, a lack of evidence, forged court documents, extorting a confession by torture, and prolonged detention. On November 4, 2008, the intermediate court ruled to "repeal the sentence passed during the first trail and send the case back to Qiaoxi District Court for a new trial."
On November 21, 2008, the case was formally returned to Qiaoxi District Court.
At 10:10 a.m. on February 17, 2009, the No. 11 court, a division of Qiaoxi District Court, re-opened the case and convened a second trial. Because the initial evidence was invalid, the prosecutor retracted the evidence. However, on March 15, 2009, Qiaoxi District Court still sentenced Mr. Song Aichang to three years in prison, although there was no evidence.
Mr. Song deemed it an unfair trial and an unfair sentence. He appealed to the Intermediate Court, and two fair-minded attorneys represented him in court. The appeal that Mr. Song and his attorneys, Xie Yanyi and Tang Jitian, filed with the Hebei Province High Court stated that the lower court had lost its credibility due to it illegal conduct during the first trial, and therefore they should not have jurisdiction over a second trial. Eventually Hebei Province High Court took the case according to the law.
However, a few months passed and the trial was delayed without reason. At the same time, Lv Ling from the Intermediate Court claimed that she had seen the appeal letter copied to her by the high court. Despite knowing she had no jurisdiction in the case, she continued to interrogate Mr. Song. Mr. Song requested that his defense attorneys report the situation to the City Procuratorate and request an investigation into the activities of Xu Guangwei, the Shijiazhuang City Intermediate Court director, who was responsible for the misconduct and delinquency.
In July 2009, before the High Court of Hebei Province had made a ruling in the case, Shijiazhuang City Intermediate Court upheld the original three-year sentence, although it did not legally have jurisdiction in the case.
Currently Mr. Song Aichang remains in the 2nd Detention Center of Shijiazhuang City.