(Minghui.org) Ms. Sun Guizhi from Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia was recently indicted for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. When Ms. Sun Guizhi’s defender went to the local procuratorate to review her case documents, the prosecutors rejected his request even though China’s criminal procedure law clearly guarantees his right to do so (in China, lawyers and non-lawyers can represent defendants, and have the right to view their case files).
Ms. Sun was initially arrested together with Ms. Zhang Xiangyun on January 26, 2022, while distributing Falun Gong informational materials. They went into hiding after being released on bail that day. Ms. Zhang was taken back into custody two days later and sentenced to three and a half years in June 2022. Ms. Sun landed a nanny job in neighboring Lingyuan City (in Liaoning Province) but the Ningcheng police tracked her down by monitoring her loved ones’ phones. They notified their counterparts in Lingyuan City, who arrested her on August 26, 2023.
Ms. Sun was then turned over to the Ningcheng police, who held her at the Ningcheng County Detention Center.
The Ningcheng County Police Department submitted her case to the Ningcheng County Procuratorate, which indicted her and forwarded her case to the Ningcheng County Court.
One of Ms. Sun’s family members, Che (alias), became her non-lawyer defender. He went to the procuratorate on October 24, 2023 to review her case documents. Prosecutor He in charge of the case, as well as his assistant surnamed Zhao, only showed Che Ms. Sun’s indictment, not her case documents. Prosecutor He claimed that Che must go to the court to review the case documents.
Che argued that prosecutor He violated Article 38 of the Criminal Procedure Law, which states, “A defense lawyer may, from the date on which the relevant people’s procuratorate begins to examine the case for prosecution, consult, excerpt and reproduce the case file materials. Other defenders, with permission of the people’s procuratorate or people’s court, may also consult, excerpt and reproduce the above-mentioned materials.”
Che said there was no valid reason for prosecutor He to deny his request to review Ms. Sun’s case documents.
Before prosecutor He had a chance to respond, a female prosecutor surnamed Zhang came over and asked what Che was doing there. Che said he was there to review Ms. Sun’s case documents as a non-lawyer defender. Zhang replied that defendants’ families could only hire lawyers to review case documents, but not themselves.
Che said Article 32 of the Criminal Procedure Law stipulates that defendants may entrust three types of persons as defenders: lawyers; persons recommended by a public organization or the unit to which the criminal suspect or the defendant belongs; and guardians or relatives and friends of the criminal suspect or the defendant.
Zhang didn’t believe Che and googled the information on her iPad. She read aloud Article 32 and insisted that only lawyers could represent defendants. Che asked her to keep reading and she became speechless when she saw non-lawyers were also allowed as legal representatives.
Despite this, prosecutors Zhang and He still did not allow Che to review Ms. Sun’s case documents. Che is in the process of filing complaints against them for violating the criminal procedure law.
Details of Initial Arrests
Ms. Sun and Ms. Zhang were arrested on January 26, 2022, after they were reported for distributing Falun Gong materials. Ms. Sun’s materials were confiscated.
Because Ms. Zhang’s two grandsons were at home by themselves when the police came, the officers did not raid the place. Both women were released around 7 p.m. that day and ordered to report to the police station whenever they were summoned. As soon as Ms. Zhang returned home, the police ransacked her place.
To avoid being persecuted, the two practitioners left home and went into hiding. Two days later, Ms. Zhang’s son-in-law picked her up from a relative’s home in another city. The police, who were staked out outside her home, arrested her as soon as she returned.
The police also attempted to arrest Ms. Sun, but she wasn’t home when the police showed up. They ransacked her home again but didn’t find any Falun Gong materials and left.
Ms. Zhang was held in the Ningcheng County Detention Center. Her family demanded she be released but to no avail. She was indicted by the local procuratorate in May 2022 and sentenced to three and a half years on June 23, 2022. She is incarcerated in the Inner Mongolia Women’s Prison.
Related report:
Two Women Targeted for Distributing Falun Gong Materials—One Sentenced and the Other Hiding
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