(Minghui.org) Two women in Longkou City, Shandong Province stood trial on November 1, 2023 for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.
Ms. Chen Guifang’s and Ms. Jiao Linhui’s families arrived at the Longkou City Court early that day, eager to get a glimpse of them as they had been denied all forms of family visits since their arrests more than five months ago.
The two women, however, were nowhere to be seen in the courtroom. Their families then heard the presiding judge talking into a microphone. It turned out that he was conducting a hybrid hearing, with Ms. Chen and Ms. Jiao appearing virtually in a next-door room, and everyone else in-person in the main courtroom.
Prosecutor Wang Fei accused Ms. Jiao of being a “repeat offender” as she was twice given forced labor in the past for her faith in Falun Gong. Ms. Jiao refuted that she should never have been persecuted for exercising her constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief. As such, the forced labor terms were never legitimate in the first place.
Ms. Chen testified against the police for lying to her. They promised to send her home after going through a physical examination on the day of her arrest, only to take her to the Yantai City Detention Center right after the hospital visit. She said she became healthy after she took up Falun Gong more than twenty years ago, but she developed high blood pressure and migraines after being abused in the detention center for more than five months. The guards forced her to take some unknown drugs every day.
Ms. Chen and her lawyer also protested against the format of the hearing. They questioned the presiding judge on why he put her and Ms. Jiao in a different room than everyone else when they were already brought to the courthouse and they did not suffer from any contagious disease.
Ms. Chen further pointed out that she was told that a different judge would preside over the trial and that she was not informed of the change of the presiding judge in advance as required by law.
The judge did not address the concerns and ended the hearing in half an hour.
Ms. Chen and Ms. Jiao were taken back to the Yantai City Detention Center after the hearing.
Part of Group Arrest on May 9, 2023
Ms. Chen and Ms. Jiao were among 23 Longkou residents (21 Falun Gong practitioners and two of their family members) arrested around 5 a.m. on May 9, 2023. More than 100 officers from eight police stations in Longkou City were dispatched that day to carry out the group arrest. They deceived the targeted practitioners into opening their doors by claiming to be street committee staffers or downstairs neighbors whose ceilings were leaking.
According to insiders, the Longkou City Domestic Security Office orchestrated the police sweep.
While most of the arrested practitioners were released unconditionally, Ms. Chen, Ms. Jiao, and Ms. Ge Lijuan are still held in the Yantai City Detention Center, and Mr. Wang Zhoulin is in the Longkou City Detention Center. Mr. Sun Guangjun and Ms. Wang Fengmei were put under house arrest and Ms. Wu Jingkun was released on bail.
Ms. Chen, Ms. Ge, Ms. Jiao, and Mr. Wang had their arrests formally approved in June 2023 and their cases were submitted to the Longkou City Procuratorate on July 26. They were indicted weeks later and their cases were forwarded to the Longkou City Court on August 21.
Ms. Sun, Ms. Wu and Ms. Wang’s cases were submitted to the procuratorate around September 2023 and they are facing indictment.
The Cases Against Ms. Chen, Ms. Ge, Ms. Jiao, and Mr. Wang
Ms. Chen’s, Ms. Ge’s, Ms. Jiao’s, and Mr. Wang’s families all received their formal arrest notices on June 14, 2023. They then went to the Longkou City Domestic Security Office to request that the police revoke the formal arrests and disclose the names, titles, and IDs of all the officers involved in the group arrest.
The four families never received a response to their requests. Every time they visited the Domestic Security office, the police there had various excuses to not address their concerns or they gave them the runaround.
The families then submitted a complaint to the Longkou City Procuratorate and the Longkou City Police Department, against the chief perpetrators at the Domestic Security office, including Lyu Bing (a newly appointed captain), Wang Qi, Zhan Yuren, and Guo Fudui, for violating legal procedures in arresting and detaining their loved ones. Captain Lyu even dispatched agents to some of the practitioners’ hometowns to obtain information about their history of practicing Falun Gong in an attempt to frame them.
After they learned of their complaint, Wang, Zhan, and Guo intimidated the families. They used various tactics, including coercion, deceit, and intimidation to turn the practitioners’ neighbors, friends and colleagues into prosecution witnesses.
Guo even warned prosecutor Wang Fei, who was assigned to the four practitioners’ cases, to not accept the complaint. Wang thus ignored various requests submitted by the practitioners’ families, urging her to drop the cases and to not indict the practitioners.
Wang also refused to meet with the families and kept them in the dark about the practitioners’ case status. She indicted the practitioners after the police submitted the cases to the procuratorate on July 26. The families did not realize that their loved ones had been indicted until they learned that the cases were forwarded to the Longkou City Court on August 21.
Ms. Chen and Ms. Jiao stood trial on November 1, and the case status of Ms. Ge and Mr. Wang remains unclear.
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