(Minghui.org) Three residents of Huaihua City, Hunan Province, appeared in the same court separately on December 16-17, 2024, for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. The judge who presided over the three trials and the prosecutor who charged the trio both yelled, “Don’t talk to me about the law” during the hearings.
Ms. Wu Fangming, 60, Ms. Jiang Changxian, 59, and Ms. Yin Qiuyang, 75, were arrested between September and October 2023. They are currently held at the Huaihua City Detention Center. Their cases were assigned to Zhijiang County, which has been designated to handle Falun Gong cases in the great Huaihua region.
Prosecutor Zhou Yulan of the Zhijiang County Procuratorate indicted the three practitioners at an unknown time and later submitted their cases to the Zhijiang County Court, which started prosecuting them separately in March 2024.
Before their latest court appearances in December 2024, Ms. Wu appeared in court on March 18, 2024, but the trial was declared a mistrial one hour later. The court instead held a pre-trial conference on April 12, 2024. Ms. Yin was set to stand trial on March 26, 2024, but upon her lawyer’s request, her court date was rescheduled for April 12, 2024. Ms. Jiang’s court date was initially set for March 27, 2024, but was postponed to April 8. The April 8th hearing was changed to a “prosecutor-led hearing” at the last minute. [In China, a “prosecutor-led hearing” is facilitated by the prosecutor in charge of the indictment process and may be held either before or after a verdict is reached. The purpose is to hear different parties’ concerns about the trial or already-determined verdict.]
For details of the three women’s arrests and earlier court appearances, see the related report.
Details of Latest Court Hearings in December 2024
Presiding Judge Chen Qingzhen heard Ms. Wu’s and Ms. Yin’s cases in two back-to-back hearings on December 16, 2024, and Ms. Jiang’s the next day. Prosecutor Zhou and judges Li Sixing and Wu Licheng were also present in all three trials.
On the morning of December 16, 2024, multiple police cruisers and a SWAT vehicle were seen parked in front of the Zhijiang County Court. A large number of community workers were also dispatched there to prevent local Falun Gong practitioners from entering the courthouse. A few practitioners who managed to get close were chased away and shadowed by plainclothes officers. Some practitioners also reported receiving threatening phone calls while on their way to the courthouse.
Ms. Wu’s hearing began at 10 a.m. Only two of her family members were allowed inside with the rest of the gallery seats filled with people arranged by the court, including agencies overseeing the defense lawyers’ law firms.
Prosecutor Zhou stated that Ms. Wu was arrested on September 28, 2023, after the police who had been following her intercepted a letter she dropped off at a local post office and found that it contained information about Falun Gong. Her two lawyers, Mr. Li Chunfu and Mr. Dong Qianyong, both pointed out that the police violated the law by intercepting private letters. They argued that the letter could not be used as admissible evidence against their client.
Judge Chen then instructed the prosecution to gather more evidence and announced to adjourn the session. He, however, resumed the hearing in 30 minutes, when the two defense lawyers were out for lunch. The hearing ended a bit past 3 p.m.
One hour later at 4 p.m., judge Chen began to hear Ms. Yin’s case. Her non-lawyer defender Mr. Xie Yanyi had a hoarse voice and she could not hear clearly. Her son then entrusted the aforementioned lawyer Dong to represent his mother, who was previously jailed for four years (2014 – 2018) for her faith.
Judge Chen rejected the request and Mr. Dong cited relevant laws that allowed for such last-minute requests for additional legal representation in court. Chen and prosecutor Zhou Yulan both yelled, “Don’t talk to us about the law!” Mr. Dong refused to budge and Chen relented.
As the hearing went on, Mr. Xie’s voice got better, and joined Mr. Dong in defending Ms. Yin. Judge Chen adjourned the hearing a bit past 7 p.m.
Ms. Jiang appeared in court on December 17, 2024, with her hearing starting at 2:30 p.m. Mr. Dong served as her defense lawyer too. He testified against the arresting officers for punching his client in the head after arresting her on October 15, 2023. He also pointed out that eight male officers stripped off her top when she refused to undergo a physical examination; they held her down for the medical workers to draw her blood and do an X-ray and other checkups. The police also later deceived her husband into giving statements incriminating her.
Mr. Dong argued that the police-supplied prosecution evidence should be inadmissible. Judge Chen and prosecutor Zhou claimed that he was not welcome in their court and ordered Ms. Jiang to hire a new lawyer in three days. Chen then adjourned the session.
Related Report:
Copyright © 2024 Minghui.org. All rights reserved.
