(Minghui.org) A 61-year-old resident of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, stood trial on September 12, 2024, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Du Guozhen was arrested at home at around 9 p.m. on April 18, 2024. The arresting officers from the Weiming Boulevard Police Station took her to the Shijiazhuang Second Detention Center.
The Qiaoxi District Procuratorate issued a formal arrest warrant for her soon afterwards. They received her case from the police in late June 2024. Prosecutor Li Sujuan indicted Ms. Du on August 1 and forwarded her case to the Qiaoxi District Court. Judge Zheng Lijun heard the case on September 12. Ms. Du pleaded not guilty as no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong, but judge Zheng threatened to sentence her to prison. A final verdict is still yet to be issued.
Dubbed a “modern day Justice Pao” (the legendary Song dynasty official Bao Zheng who was known for upholding justice for the less privileged), Ms. Du was a well-respected judge at the Zanhuang County Court, especially after she took up Falun Gong in 1997 and strove to live by its principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in both her personal and professional life. (Zanhuang is under the administration of Shijiazhuang City.)
She was assigned to handle a traffic accident case, in which the plaintiff sustained severe fractures after the defendant crashed his car into her and he refused to cover her medical bills.
Ms. Du heard the plaintiff sobbing and asked her what was going on. She said that she worried that she might not win the lawsuit against the defendant as she didn’t have any money to bribe the judge. Ms. Du explained that as the judge in charge of the case, she would never accept bribes and would only issue a ruling based on the merits of the case. The plaintiff felt relieved and later dropped the case after reaching a settlement with the defendant after Ms. Du’s mediation.
The court also assigned many other difficult cases to Ms. Du. None of the cases she handled resulted in appeals by either plaintiffs or defendants, as litigants on both sides felt she was fair and impartial. She received numerous awards for her outstanding job performance.
Ms. Du once went to a village to investigate a case and needed to wash her hands after her car broke down. A villager got her a basin of water, a new towel, and a new bar of soap. She was very touched and thanked him for being so kind. The villager smiled and said, “I know who you are. Aren’t you our 'Justice Pao?'”
Such a good judge, however, was targeted for practicing Falun Gong. She was arrested at work on August 23, 2013, by Zhang Yanjun, the vice president of the court, and local police officers. Her latest arrest on April 18, 2024 was another attempt by the local authorities to make her renounce her faith in Falun Gong.