(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners Pei Tingjiu and Wang Yongjiu were illegally tried in Harbin City on March 30, 2016. The trial was conducted by the Shuangcheng District Court, after both practitioners had been detained for over 100 days.
The Trial
Mr. Pei and Mr. Wang were both brought to court in handcuffs and shackles. Several dozen of their relatives and friends came from many miles away to attend the trial, yet only four members of each practitioner's family were allowed to enter the courtroom.
The front of the courtroom was packed with agents from the 610 Office, Domestic Security Division, and police station, along with township and village officials. They amounted to several times more than the number of family members in the courtroom.
Mr. Pei's daughter hired a lawyer from Beijing, Mr. Li Jinglin, to represent Mr. Pei. In court the attorney asked, “What did my client do? What organization did they utilize? What justice did they obstruct? To what extent?” The procurator could not answer.
The lawyer also pointed out that the case was unfounded since evidence for the case could not be established. The communist regime, he added, never created a law forbidding the practice of Falun Gong. Moreover, people practicing it at home do not affect anyone. The police's arrest of innocent people is illegal, he said, noting that the court couldn't present any related laws to challenge his argument.
The procurator then tried to coerce the family members to disengage the lawyer, promising to consider a lighter penalty if they did. But the family members did not give in to the pressure.
The Arrest
Zhang Rui, the deputy chief of the Handian Police Station, had led five officers to Mr. Pei's house at around 7:00 p.m. on December 17, 2015. They jumped over the locked gate into the yard, broke into Mr. Pei's home, and took him to the police station.
When Mr. Pei's daughter asked what crime Mr. Pei had committed, Zhang Rui said that he had “disturbed the order of society.” When the family members argued with him, he forced them out of the room. The next day, Mr. Pei was taken to the Shuangcheng Detention Center as a criminal offender.
Mr. Wang Yongjiu, from Liujiazi Village, was also arrested at the same time and taken to the Shuangcheng Detention Center.
Related article in Chinese:http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2016/4/2/哈尔滨市双城区法院非法庭审好人-326148.html
