Four Female Falun Gong Practitioners and One of Their Husbands Tried, One Practitioner’s Friend Barred from Defending Her

(Minghui.org) Four woman Falun Gong practitioners in Dongying City, Shandong Province and one of their husbands stood trial on July 25 and 26, 2022 at the Dongying District Court.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Arrests

A group of police officers broke into Ms. Liu Yanmei’s home and her daughter’s on the early morning of April 23, 2021. They ransacked the two homes, but without issuing the lists of confiscated items. Both Ms. Liu and her daughter, who doesn’t practice Falun Gong, were taken to the police station and had their biometrics collected. Without showing their IDs or revealing their titles, the police interrogated Ms. Liu until 4 a.m. and forced her to sign the deposition record.

The police ordered Ms. Liu’s son-in-law to pay 20,000 yuan as her bail bond. No receipt or bail release notice was given.

At the same time, another ten Falun Gong practitioners and one of the female practitioners’ husband were arrested. While seven practitioners were later released and cleared of prosecution, the police later submitted the cases against the remaining four people to the procuratorate. They are Ms. Meng Fanyun, Ms. Guo Yunfang, Ms. Li Xuerong and her husband Mr. Han Dan, who doesn’t practice Falun Gong. Both Ms. Li and her husband were also released on bail later on. Ms. Meng was held at the Dongying City Detention Center. It’s not clear whether Ms. Guo was released or detained.

Ms. Liu’s Friend Rejected as a Defender

Ms. Liu was informed on November 15, 2021 that the police had submitted her case to the procuratorate. She filed a complaint against police officer Yue Qianli with the Dongying District Procuratorate on November 26 for arbitrarily ransacking her home and persecuting her. Her lawyer also submitted a legal opinion to the procuratorate on December 12, urging the prosecutor not to indict her.

On January 25, 2022, a police officer surnamed Xie called Ms. Liu and told her that the prosecutor had indicted her and moved her case to the Dongying District Court.

A friend of Ms. Liu agreed to defend her in court. Both of them went to the court on February 8 to submit the friend’s representation document. Shi Yuanyuan, a court clerk, called on the next day, asking Ms. Liu to provide a letter showing she and her friend were friends, but Shi didn’t specify which agency she should contact to issue such letter.

Ms. Liu went to her residential committee on March 30, asking the director to issue the letter. The director ridiculed the court’s demand and said he couldn’t issue such a letter, as friend relationship is private and no one can approve it. Ms. Liu then found another friend to issue the required letter and turned it in to Shi.

Shi called Ms. Liu on July 15 and said she and other practitioners were scheduled to appear in court on July 25 and 26. Shi added that the court decided that her friend wasn’t qualified to represent her. Ms. Liu asked about the specific reason. She argued that Article 32 of the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law clearly indicated that the defendants can entrust “guardians or relatives and friends” to be their defenders. Shi refused to answer.

On July 18, Ms. Liu filed another complaint against judge Ji Penghui for depriving her right of defense. She demanded to have both Ji and Shi recused from her hearing. It’s not clear whether the court responded to her complaint before the hearing.

It also remains to be investigated whether Ms. Liu, Ms. Meng, Ms. Guo, Ms. Li and her husband Mr. Han were tried jointly on July 25 and 26, or they appeared in separate trials.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Ji Penghui (纪鹏辉), judge of Dongying District Court: [phone]Shi Yuanyuan (史媛媛), clerk of Dongying District Court: [phone]