(Minghui.org) A Tangshan City, Hebei Province, woman stood trial on March 29, 2023, for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Wang Yaxin, a 53-year-old senior engineer of the Hebei Steel Company, took up Falun Gong in 2007. She and two other practitioners, Ms. Ji Guiqin and Ms. Guo Liyun, visited Ms. Du Zhonghua on July 7, 2022. Ms. Du’s ex-husband, who had divorced her many years ago, suddenly showed up and demanded money from her. When Ms. Du refused to pay him, he reported her and her three guests, claiming they were engaging in illegal activities.
The police soon came, arrested the four practitioners, and raided their homes, without showing their IDs.
Zheng Zhiwen, an officer of the Kaiping District Domestic Security Office, was mainly in charge of Ms. Wang’s case. In October 2022, the police submitted her case to the Kaiping County Procuratorate, which transferred it to the Lubei District Procuratorate.
Many of Ms. Wang’s family members and friends went to the Lubei District Court on March 29 to attend her hearing. Yet Judge Yang Jian only allowed her immediate family members inside, with the excuse that there were too many of her family members. But when her family went inside, they noted there were still many spaces even when they sat one seat apart.
Ms. Wang’s husband, Mr. Chen Liwu, applied to represent her as a family defender, but Judge Yang demanded he provides evidence to show that he wasn’t serving any probation term, knowing that he also practices Falun Gong. When Mr. Chen argued that there was no such requirement in the law, the judge said to him, “We have a different understanding of the law. You should listen to me.”
Ms. Wang testified in her own defense. She said that as a Falun Gong practitioner, it’s normal for her to have Falun Gong books at home. The prosecutor, Zhang Linfang, asked her where she got the books. She replied that no matter where she got the books, it couldn’t show how she had violated the law.
The prosecutor also asked Ms. Wang whether she had been sentenced in 2018 for distributing Falun Gong materials, in an attempt to accuse her of being a repeat offender. Ms. Wang responded that she was wrongfully sentenced and she still had the right to file a motion to reconsider the case.
Ms. Wang said to the judge that it was a disgrace to the law that a Falun Gong practitioner like her was being tried simply for practicing Falun Gong and living by its principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Just as she started to recount how she benefitted from the practice, the judge stopped her.
Ms. Wang also pointed out there was a conflict of interest for the police who arrested her to “determine” that the materials confiscated from her were illegal.
Ms. Wang’s lawyer submitted a notice from the Chinese publication bureau, which ruled to lift the ban on Falun Gong literature in 2011, as well as the cult list published by the Ministry of Public Security in 2000, which didn’t include Falun Gong. The lawyer said the prosecutor wrongfully indicted Ms. Wang, despite knowing that no law ever criminalizes Falun Gong in China.
Related Reports:
Hebei Engineer Indicted for Her Faith
Tangshan Police Find No Evidence to Charge a Good Man
Engineer Illegally Detained, Daughter Traumatized, and Family Harassed
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