(Minghui.org) Three Taiyuan City residents appeared in Xinghualing District Court to face charges of “using a cult to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used by the Chinese communist regime in its attempt to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners.
Mr. Tian Yufei, 53, Mr. Xue Fugui, 70, and Ms. Lian Sulan, 81, were arrested on July 17, 2017. Mr. Xue and Ms. Lian were released on bail in a few hours and later placed under house arrest. Mr. Tian remains detained.
The three Falun Gong practitioners were indicted on September 26, 2017, and tried on March 6, 2018. Mr. Tian’s lawyer requested that the presiding judge and the prosecutor be recused, but the judge refused to address his concern and signaled for the hearing to go on.
The prosecutor alleged that the local police had audio recordings of 10,000 phone calls that Mr. Tian made to people to talk about Falun Gong. Mr. Tian’s lawyer questioned the authenticity of the audio recordings, which were never played in the court hearing.
Mr. Xue’s lawyer testified against the local Longquan Police Station, which denied his client water and bathroom privileges during interrogation sessions.
Ms. Lian’s lawyer refuted the prosecution evidence against his client. The prosecutor presented a photo provided by a tipster, who claimed to have seen Ms. Lian distribute Falun Gong informational materials. Her lawyer argued that the photo was so blurry that no one could tell definitively that the person photographed was Ms. Lian.
Ms. Lian had one family member testify in court. The family member argued that Ms. Lian only wanted to be a good person following Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and that she did nothing to undermine law enforcement.
Ms. Lian and the other two practitioners also testified in their own defense and shared how Falun Gong returned them to health and turned them into more considerate people.
