(Clearwisdom.net) Bayuquan District Court in Yingkou City, Liaoning Province, illegally brought seven Falun Gong practitioners to trial on March 23, 2010. Their lawyers pleaded not guilty on their behalf.
At 10 a.m. Ms. Dong Bing; Ms. Yu Zhihong and her son, Wang Zhiyuan; Ms. Sun Li and her husband, Bi Shijun; and Mr. Shen Guanghai and his wife, Teng Wenmin appeared before judges Wang Yejia, Yin Wencheng and Yang Yan. The court reporter, Xu Jianwei, and the prosecutor from Bayuquan Procuratorate, Cao Ning, were also in attendance.
The families of the seven practitioners hired a group of four lawyers to enter not guilty pleas. On the morning of March 23, 2010, Mr. Bi Shijun, Ms. Sun Li, and Mr. Shen Guanghai were called into the courtroom. All of them stated truthfully that they were not guilty for being Falun Gong practitioners or for believing in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
At 1 p.m., the family members and the lawyers representing Ms. Teng Wenmin had not arrived, so the court tried her very quickly and found her guilty. Ms. Teng's family was very angry.
When the trial of Ms. Dong Bing, Ms. Yu Zhihong, and Ms. Yu's son Wang Zhiyuan commenced, they pleaded not guilty and stated that they were all arrested at the same time around 10 p.m. on September 23, 2009, from their own homes. The police from the National Security Team of the Bayuquan District broke into their homes, took their belongings, and then arrested them.
The lawyer stated that, according to the law, Falun Gong is totally legal, so he entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of the practitioners. They asked the judges and prosecutors to produce the law that says that Falun Gong is illegal. The judges and prosecutors could not find any such laws and finally lowered their heads in shame and did not know what to say.
That afternoon, the judge announced a recess and notified the family members and lawyers that the trial would resume at 2:30 p.m. on March 24.
However, the court reconvened at a little after1 p.m. on March 24. The lawyers and over 100 family members were in attendance. The lawyers stated that none of the practitioners was guilty and that the prosecutor had not offered any evidence of guilt.. All the family members stated that the authorities needed to immediately release all the practitioners since they were clearly not guilty and had committed no crimes. The court reporter accused the family of harassing the court and told the court police to evict the relatives from the courtroom, after which he announced a recess.
Over the next several days the families asked the court to release their detained relatives. The judges said that, although the lawyers had entered a plea of not guilty for each practitioner, the courts had to do things their way and had to press charges. They also said that they had no intention of releasing any Falun Gong practitioners.
