(Minghui.org) A Falun Gong practitioner who was released on bail was ordered to stand trial herself after an extra-legal agency alleged that she violated her bail conditions by trying to attend another practitioner's court hearing.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body practice based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist regime.
Ms. Jiang Sugen, a resident in Suzhou City, was arrested and had her home ransacked on November 29, 2017 for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was released on bail less than 24 hours later but was targeted again in five months.
Ms. Jiang was stopped by Zhang Zhenhua, the deputy head of Wuzhong District 610 Office, as she tried to attend the hearing of another Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Yuan Jianying, at the Wuzhong District Court on April 20, 2018.
The 610 Office is an extra-legal agency tasked with eradicating Falun Gong and given power to override the judicial system in China. Zhang has been actively leading the 610 Office to carry out the persecution of local Falun Gong practitioners for the past few years.
Under Zhang's directive, several officers went to Ms. Jiang's home the day after Ms. Yuan's hearing and questioned if she was instructed by anyone to attend Ms. Yuan's trial. They stayed at Ms. Jiang's home for two days and monitored her.
Zhang then ordered the police to expedite the prosecution of Ms. Jiang. She was summoned to the local Shishan Police Station to sign some paperwork, and the police proceeded to submit her case to the Gaoxin District Procuratorate, which later transferred the case to the Wujiang Procuratorate.
The Wujiang Court held two hearings for Ms. Jiang, on October 31 and December 3, 2018. Ms. Jiang's lawyer defended her innocence at both hearings and argued that none of the prosecution evidence was admissible to support the charges against her. The judge hasn't announced her verdict at the time of writing.
During the first hearing in October, the prosecutor accused Ms. Jiang of talking to a bus driver about Falun Gong, of passing out Falun Gong materials to a vegetable vendor, and of having Falun Gong related items at home.
The prosecutor played several videos, including footage of the bus driver but without Ms. Jiang, a second video clip showing the vegetable vendor contradicting himself in describing where Ms. Jiang passed out the materials to him, and a third one about police searching her home, drawer by drawer, and then laying out several stacks of paper on the bed, without showing what was written on them.
Ms. Jiang's lawyer argued that none of the videos had footage of his client or even her voice, thus couldn't be used as evidence to charge her. The lawyer also pointed that it was illegal for the police to search and ransack his client's home without a search warrant.
The lawyer went on to emphasize the lack of legal basis for the persecution against Falun Gong.
Neither the judge nor the prosecutor responded to his argument.
Ms. Jiang's lawyer continued to defend her constitutionally protected rights of freedom of belief to practice Falun Gong during the second hearing in December.
Ms. Jiang also shared how practicing Falun Gong improved her health and character. She pleaded not guilty and expressed her wish that the court officials follow their conscience in deciding her case, rather than becoming a rubber stamp of the totalitarian government.