(Clearwisdom.net) Hou Peng, Presiding Judge of the No. 2 Courtroom in the Yaodu District Court in Linfen City, Shanxi Province, has held numerous trials against Falun Gong practitioners since the persecution against Falun Gong began on July 20, 1999. As a law enforcement official, Hou has framed Falun Dafa practitioners without adhering to the facts or following the laws and regulations. As a result, many Falun Dafa practitioners have been sent to prison and lost their jobs. One practitioner was forced to leave home and live a life of homelessness, eventually dying from the persecution after going through extreme hardships.
In every trial, whenever the attorney was ready to defend the Falun Gong practitioners according to proper legal procedures, Hou would rush to the attorney's side and tell them something confidentially. The attorney would immediately stop the defense (clearly under Hou's pressure). Hou Peng has disregarded the legal rights of citizens and completely deprived the practitioners of their right to defense or appeal. Each trial was hastily called off and harsh sentencing, ranging from three to four years, was announced afterwards.
1. Ms. Yang Meiying Died as a Result of an Unfair Trial
In December 2000, Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Yang Meiying, an employee of the Linfen City Human Resources Company, exercised her constitutional rights by going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She meant to tell the government of her own experience of being healed from chronic illnesses, which she experienced after practicing Falun Gong, an excellent practice based on the principle of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance. Unfortunately, the local police officers escorted her back to her area. The Intermediate Court rejected the petition for a trial, based on insufficient and unclear facts. This should have put an end to the matter. Hou Peng, though, in his capacity as judge, scheduled another court hearing to put Ms. Yang on trial in May 2002. She was forced into homelessness, and was subsequently held in custody without cause by officers from the Xiangling Police Station in Xiangfen County. Ms. Yang was hung by her arms in a room on the second floor, after over six hours of beating. Her internal organs were damaged. After her family was forced to pay 3,000 yuan to get her out on medical parole, Yang Meiying soon died after, as a direct consequence of the persecution.
2. Trampling the Law While Ignoring Human Rights
In December 1999, Ms. Zhang Ruihong, a former employee of the Yaomiao Credit Union, exercising her constitutional rights, went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. While she was traveling to Beijing, the police arrested Ms. Zhang and took her to a station in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. The Yaodu District police subsequently held her in custody for over four months.
In June 2000, after Ms. Zhang and other practitioners were caught doing the Falun Gong exercises on a pedestrian walk, the Yaodu District police detained her for over half a month. As she had nowhere to file an appeal and was deprived of her environment for practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Zhang started to clarify the truth to people face to face, telling them the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution. In August 2000, the Yaodu District police again detained Zhang Ruihong. The Linfen Daily took this as an excuse to slander Falun Dafa and practitioners.
On January 4, 2001, Hou Peng presided over the trial against Ms. Zhang. Hou, resorting to the same coercive measures in the courtroom to stop attorney Yang Zongsen from defending her. Hou also denied Ms. Zhang the legal rights to self-defense and appeal. When a prosecutor charged her with "not changing her behavior after numerous attempts of education from the authorities," Ms. Zhang solemnly replied, "As practitioners, we try our best to be good people, based on the principle of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance. We have done nothing wrong; how could we change? Do you want us to change for the worse?" The prosecutor was silent. Still, Hou Peng sentenced her to four years in prison without any evidence of a crime (later changed to three years after Ms. Zhang filed an appeal with the Intermediate Court). Ms. Zhang was secretly sent to a provincial women's prison in May 2001.
Officers in that prison resorted to various techniques of torture in order to pressure Ms. Zhang to give up Falun Dafa. They tortured her with shocks from electric batons, ordered inmates to beat her, and verbally abused her. Other punishments included making her stand up for five to six consecutive days, incarcerating her in a solitary compartment and depriving her of sleep. When Zhang Ruihong went on a hunger strike to protest this abuse, they took her to a solitary compartment for force-feeding. Two officers forced her into a chair and held her legs, while another one twisted her arms to her back and then pulled them upward. Another officer grabbed her hair and pulled her head back, while one pried her mouth open and yet another officer poured a thin corn gruel into her mouth. Ms. Zhang's arms were almost broken and she suffered excruciating pain. She was not able to move her arms long after the force-feeding was over. Ms. Zhang Ruihong has suffered mental and physical abuse for extended periods in this prison.
3. Elderly Gentleman in His Seventies Is Not Spared
Mr. Sima Shou from Fujian Province is in his seventies. In December 2001, police received reports that he was raising public awareness of Falun Dafa. They ransacked his home, taking him into custody. Several months later, Hou Peng from the Yaodu District Court presided over Mr. Sima's trial and sentenced him to three years in prison. In 2003, the elderly Mr. Sima was sent to a prison in Qi County and was released after extensive abuse. But he has no home to return to, and he has been forced to leave town and move from place to place.
December 22, 2004
