(Minghui.org) A Beijing attorney was handcuffed, shackled, and interrogated after meeting with his client, a Falun Gong practitioner, at a detention center. The attorney was forced to resign from the case.
Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Li Yeliang has been held in Tongzhou District Detention Center for over six months. The officials claim that Mr. Li’s fingerprints were found on a poster board that contained information about suing Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party who initiated the persecution of Falun Gong.
When Mr. Li pointed out that the fingerprints do not belong to him, the Procuratorate sent the case back to the police department and requested that they re-examine the prints. During that time, Mr. Li’s family hired an attorney to represent him.
When Mr. Li met with his attorney at the detention center, he asked if anyone had tried to write to him. “Yes, but I cannot give the letter to you right now,” the attorney said, showing him the letter.
When the guard saw the letter, he inspected the attorney's briefcase and reported the incident. The attorney was then detained and taken to the Tongzhou Domestic Security Division, where he was shackled and interrogated.
The attorney said he did not know the person who gave him the letter. He also suggested that the guards watch the video from the security camera to prove that he never passed on anything to Mr. Li.
The interrogation continued for about eight hours, continuing until 8:00 p.m. The attorney was allowed no food or water.
A few days later, the attorney notified Mr. Li's family that he was resigning from the case. The family begged him to stay on, but it was later learned that the attorney was being pressured by the Attorneys Association he worked for to resign from the case.
Of the 18 Falun Gong practitioners arrested on January 21, 2016, by the Tongzhou District Domestic Security Division, Mr. Li and two other practitioners are still detained.
