(Clearwisdom.net) On the morning of September 27, 2008, Wuhou District Court in Chengdu City convened an illegal session against nine practitioners including Zhong Fangqiong, Mao Kun, Liu Bangcheng, Jiang Zonglin, Liu Jia, Zhu Renbin, Ding Zeyang, Jiang Hongyuan, and Chen Shikun and two of their family members. The initial notice to lawyers indicated a public session. However, the court did not allow any of the practitioners' relatives to attend the hearing. The excuse was that they did not have hearing certificates, but the court did not issue hearing certificates in advance at all, and in any case did not notify the relatives.
The court distributed all of the hearing certificates to 610 Office personnel and then claimed it would be a "public session" in order to avoid being condemned for holding a "secret trial and black-box operation." The person in charge of this case stated in advance that they "cannot have a public session, and cannot allow family members to attend as there is no such precedent in Chengdu City."
In the afternoon, the court required every defense attorney to reduce his defense statement to less than five minutes, claiming that time was limited and other cases were pending the next day. However, the attorneys refused to conform to the requirement. Currently, the case has been delayed to October 10, 2008.
Between August and September 2007, more than 30 Chengdu practitioners were arrested from their homes and offices. Almost all of them were brutally tortured. On March 13, 2008, Ms. Zhou Huimin was tortured to death at the Qingyang District People's Hospital, which is the hospital used by the Chengdu City Detention Center. Ms. Zhong Fangqiong and other practitioners were inhumanly tortured while they were detained in the Yuanyuan Hotel. Mr. Ding Zeyang is an associate professor at Sichuan University. On September 25, 2008, the attorney Mr. Ding's family hired for him went to the detention center early in the morning, but he could not meet with Mr. Ding. In the afternoon, the guards finally said that Mr. Ding had been hospitalized for several days but refused to tell the lawyer the location of the hospital. After searching, Ding's family learned he was in the hospital on Wanghe Road, Qingyang District, Chengdu City.
Responsible people:
Shui Changbing, the judge: 86-28-82872711
Lei Xing: 86-28-82872742
Prosecutor Gou Zhongmou
Deputy prosecutors Xiao Lizheng and Hu Qiang
