(Minghui.org) A 78-year-old Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, resident stood trial on September 21, 2023, for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Ni Guiyun refused to use the court-appointed lawyer as the latter had been instructed to enter a guilty plea for her. She was then barred from using her own non-lawyer defender to represent her. During the hearing, the prosecutor read aloud a list of items confiscated from her home without presenting any evidence in court. The judge did not call any prosecution witnesses to the stand and adjourned the hearing after asking Ms. Ni a few questions.
Ms. Ni’s ordeal stemmed from an arrest on September 9, 2022, for talking to people about Falun Gong at the Caigezhuang Market. The police found her home address after seizing her senior bus pass from her bag. They next raided her home. Her son paid a 1,000-yuan bail bond and secured her release later that day.
The police began to harass Ms. Ni at home in April 2023. They next submitted her case to the Funing District Procuratorate, which had been assigned to handle Falun Gong cases. The procuratorate indicted her and submitted her case to the Funing District Court on May 31, 2023.
Ms. Ni hired a lawyer to write up materials explaining the legality of practicing Falun Gong and condemning her wrongful indictment. She intended to submit the materials to the Funing District Procuratorate, Funing District Court, and Beidaihe District Police Department (which oversees the Caigezhuang Police Station and the Haining Road Police Station, which were both in charge of her case).
Ms. Ni’s friends, Ms. Liang Jun, Ms. Hong Yanrong, and Ms. Yu Shuyun, accompanied her and her lawyer to the Beidaihe District Police Department on June 26, 2023, to turn in letters and information urging the police not to prosecute Ms. Ni for her faith.
In retaliation, the police arrested Ms. Liang and Ms. Hong on July 14. Both of them are still held in custody at the time of writing. Ms. Yu avoided being arrested because she was not home when the police went.
The Funing District Court scheduled a hearing of Ms. Ni’s case for July 28, 2023, but later canceled it.
Ms. Ni was notified on September 2 that a hearing of her case would be held three days later. She called judge Shi Wenjing and told her she was struggling with high blood pressure and it wasn’t physically feasible for her to attend the hearing. She also questioned judge Shi why her family member’s application to be her non-lawyer defender was rejected. (It’s not clear whether the lawyer Ms. Ni hired earlier dropped her case on his own or was forced to withdraw from the case by the authorities.)
Shi said that Ms. Ni must submit a written request to decline the court-appointed lawyer before the non-lawyer defender’s application to represent her could be approved. Ms. Ni argued that there was no law dictating that and filed a complaint against Shi, but to no avail.
The court called Ms. Ni on the morning of September 5, still demanding she attend the hearing scheduled for that day. She insisted that she was unable to go. In the afternoon, judge Shi and officer Jiang Zixu of the Haining Road Police Station went to Ms. Ni’s home and questioned her as to why she didn’t appear for the hearing. Ms. Ni explained that she didn’t feel well enough to attend the session. Shi still tried to pressure her into accepting the court-appointed lawyer.
Two officers from the Haining Police Station knocked on Ms. Ni’s door on September 21 and deceived her into opening the door by claiming to be from the residential committee. Upon seeing the paper written with the words “Peace, good fortune, blessings” on her coffee table, officer Li Guanghua asked her who wrote the words. Ms. Ni didn’t answer but told them that one would receive blessings for being good and telling the truth.
Li replied, “Nowadays people all lie. We know you are telling the truth, but you can’t get anything done by telling the truth. You have to tell lies.” He then worked with the other officer to carry Ms. Ni into the police car and drove her to the Funing County Court for the hearing.
Only judge Shi and prosecutor Zou Shumin were in the courtroom. Ms. Ni asked Shi why she didn’t inform her family defender of the hearing. Shi remained silent.
Shi then asked Ms. Ni, “Are you pleading guilty?”
Ms. Ni denied having violated any laws in telling people about Falun Gong.
Prosecutor Zou read the list of items confiscated from Ms. Ni and stayed silent most of the time. Shi said, “We’ll talk about this later” before adjourning the session.
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