(Minghui.org) When Ms. Liang Yaomin appeared in court for the third time on January 20, 2022 for her faith in Falun Gong, she and her lawyers refuted the evidence that had been fabricated by the police. They said that none of the evidence could prove she violated any law by practicing Falun Gong, and demanded her acquittal.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Liang Yaomin, a former police supervisor in Haiyang City, Shandong Province, was arrested at her clothing store on January 9, 2021. The 62-year-old woman suffered severe heart problems and her legs shook uncontrollably while being held at the Yantai City Detention Center.
Despite her medical condition, the police refused to release her on bail, and attempted to use the bail release to deceive her into writing statements renouncing Falun Gong or plead guilty for practicing Falun Gong. The prosecutor also attempted to deceive her into signing documents acknowledging the fabricated evidence in exchange for her bail release. She refused to comply.
Ms. Liang experienced severe chest pain when she was tried by the Haiyang City Court through virtual hearings on December 16 and December 30, 2021. The judge adjourned both sessions and rescheduled the hearing to January 20, 2022.
Refuting False Evidence
At the beginning of the hearing on January 20, Ms. Liang requested that the police play the videos recorded by their body-cam during her home raid. The videos showed that the items taken away from her home included daily necessities and tools she used to sell clothing. Except for the banknotes printed with information about Falun Gong (a creative way used by the practitioners to counteract the strict information censorship in China), none of the items included in the prosecution evidence appeared to have been confiscated from her home.
During the second hearing on December 30, the prosecutor presented several items, including 163 copies of alleged Falun Gong promotional materials, some books claimed to be Falun Gong’s teachings, photos of Falun Gong’s founder, and the aforementioned banknotes.
Ms. Liang argued that the 163 flyers came from a single book with consecutive page numbers. The police tore off each page in order to increase the amount of “evidence” to charge her. The book didn’t have a word that mentioned Falun Gong and it didn’t come from her.
In terms of the alleged Falun Gong books, most of them were severely damaged and some had white covers, when all authentic Falun Gong books have yellow covers (except for blue covers on the books in other translated languages). These books also didn’t appear in the home-raid videos, nor did the photos of Falun Gong’s founder.
In the videos, the police were seen taking away a desktop calendar on a small refrigerator in her clothing store, but it was for her own use and didn’t have anything to do with Falun Gong.
Additionally, the police found only a small stack of the aforementioned banknotes, while they presented much more as prosecution evidence in court.
As a former police supervisor herself, Ms. Liang pointed out a few more issues in how the police handled the witness accounts.
First, none of the witnesses provided their IDs, which automatically invalidated their accounts.
In all the witness accounts, everyone was telling the same story, that they had received Falun Gong materials from Ms. Liang, but because they had burned the materials, they were unable to provide the evidence.
Additionally, none of the witnesses appeared in court to receive cross-examination. One police officer claimed that while Ms. Liang was staying in the hospital to care for her mother, she distributed Falun Gong pamphlets in the hospital. But he failed to provide any evidence or witness accounts to support the claim.
Ms. Liang argued that she was busy taking care of her clothing business and didn’t have time to stay in the hospital for extended periods of time to care for her mother. She asked to have her sister-in-law, who was the one who cared for her mother, to appear in court to testify, but the judge didn’t respond to her request.
The lawyers added in the end that according to an insider, the police arrested Ms. Liang to fulfill a quota. But because they didn’t have any evidence to charge her, they violated the law by filing her case, raiding her home, and fabricating evidence and witness accounts to frame her. The lawyers demanded that the judge uphold justice and acquit Ms. Liang.
Persecuted for Upholding Her Faith
Ms. Liang previously worked as a trace inspection engineer for the Haiyang City Police Department, with the title of a Third-class police supervisor. She was one of the few female investigative officers in the province. She has superb skills and cracked many major and important cases.
Due to long-term stress at work, Ms. Liang suffered from many severe ailments, including heart disease, atrophic gastritis, gallbladder edema, pancreatitis, neuropathic pain, arthritis, and cervical spine hyperplasia.
A friend introduced her to Falun Gong on January 20, 1996, after learning about Falun Gong’s tremendous health benefits. After two weeks of studying the Falun Gong spiritual teachings and doing its meditative exercises, Ms. Liang’s condition improved. She completely recovered one month later.
Since the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution in July 1999, Ms. Liang has been arrested, detained in a brainwashing center, sent to a psychiatric hospital and forced labor camp, and sentenced to prison for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. She was also fired by the police department. She opened a clothing store to make a living, only to be arrested again and face another prison sentence.
Related reports:
Former Police Supervisor Experiences Severe Chest Pain Midway Through Two Court Hearings
Former Police Supervisor Detained for Her Faith, Suffering Declining Health
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