(Minghui.org) Ms. Liu Xiaoping, Ms. Liu Cuixian, Ms. Peng Xueping, and Ms. Ran Xiaoman went to Tuoan Town in Lufeng County on December 20, 2012 to hand out Shen Yun DVDs (which spread the Chinese traditional culture) to villagers. They were reported by a security guard in Tuoan Town, and subsequently arrested by officers from the Lufeng Public Security Bureau.
After ransacking the practitioners' homes, the police charged them. The practitioners' families hired four attorneys from Beijing to defend them. However, between January and May 2013, the Public Security Bureau denied the attorneys' rights to meet with their clients, stating reasons that were considered totally absurd by the attorneys.
After persistent efforts, the County Court of Lufeng allowed the attorneys to review the practitioners' cases, but they weren't allowed to make copies of the paperwork, which is their procedural right.
During the first day of trial on May 3, 2013, the court didn't issue any court summons to the practitioners. As a result, their attorneys couldn't defend them. After the trial, practitioners' attorneys were pushed and beaten by the bailiffs.
During the trial, the self-defense statements by the practitioners, attorneys, and family members comprehensively validated the goodness of Falun Gong and the compassion of practitioners.
Four practitioners, from their own cultivation experiences, showed that Falun Dafa is a righteous teaching. They testified before the court as to why they went out to clarify the facts to people.
According to their testimony, because the Chinese communist regime has persecuted Falun Gong and defamed the practice, many people have been deceived and poisoned by the lies, and thereby resent Falun Gong. In order to clear their minds and misunderstandings about Falun Gong, practitioners feel obliged to tell them the facts. Before the persecution began on July 20, 1999, there was no such thing as “truth-clarification” to the public by Falun Gong practitioners.
The four attorneys, from legal standpoints, thoroughly exposed that the prosecutor's alleged charges were in violation of the law. The so-called charges were nothing more than slander, without legal grounds. Meanwhile, the four attorneys strongly urged the court to acquit all four practitioners.
One of the attorneys solemnly pointed to the court staff and stated, “From the so-called evidence presented by the prosecutor, to the prosecutor's accusations against my clients, that is, 'using a cult organization to undermine the law enforcement', they have only proven that Falun Gong practitioners haven't broken any laws. The ones who are truly undermining the law enforcement are the personnel from the public security organ who are here in the trial today. You are the ones who have truly undermined the enforcement of the law! Specifically, you have undermined the Criminal Law, the Judicial Law, and the Attorneys Law. All of you clearly understand that our clients are innocent. Yet, for your own personal interests, you have chosen to falsely sentence them in the guise of the law. Thus, you are the real criminals.”
Faced with righteous self defense statements, the court officials had nothing to say. Nonetheless, Li Liangsheng, the presiding judge, acted unscrupulously by ignoring the law, and falsely sentenced Ms. Liu Xiaoping to a ten-year term, Ms. Liu Cuixian to eight years, Ms. Peng Xueping to eight years, and Ms. Ran Xiaoman to seven and a half years.
Four attorneys, who represented four practitioners, on September 12, 2013, went to the Yunnan Provincial Higher Court, the Chuxiongzhou Intermediate Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Yunnan Provincial Procuratorate to sue the County Court of Lufeng for dereliction of duty and abuse of power, and pressed criminal charges against it and its related personnel. They stated that during the first trial, the facts were unclear and insufficient. There was no legal basis for the verdict. The handling of the procedure by the court was largely in violation of the law. The attorneys had requested a second trial, stating that the Chuxiong 610 Office and the public security officials had severely neglected their duty and abused their judicial power.
