Liaoning Man Indicted on Fabricated Evidence Stands Trial for His Faith

(Minghui.org) A Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province resident recently stood trial for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. Both Mr. Wang Lin and his lawyer refuted the allegations and exposed the fabricated evidence against him.

Mr. Wang was arrested on March 22, 2023, by agents from the Hi-Tech Industry Development Zone Domestic Security Office in Jinzhou City. He was indicted by the Linghai City Procuratorate on May 8 and tried by the Linghai City Court on June 5. Linghai City is under the administration of Jinzhou City. Both the Linghai City Procuratorate and the Linghai City Court have been designated to handle Falun Gong cases in the region.

Judge Huang Yanchun presided over the court hearing, and didn’t provide any explanation for why the session was delayed by almost one and a half hours, as required by law.

Brother-In-Law Denied Right to be Non-Lawyer Defender

Days before the hearing, Mr. Wang’s brother-in-law Qin (alias) went to the Linghai City Court on May 31 to submit an application to represent him as a non-lawyer defender.

Judge Huang didn’t meet with Qin in person but told him over the phone to simply submit his application at the beginning of the court hearing.

Qin did as he was told during the hearing on June 5. Judge Huang took a look at his application and denied the request on the grounds that he was not an immediate family member of Mr. Wang.

By law, defendants can have any of their family members, or even friends, represent them in court as a non-lawyer defender.

Mr. Wang Testifies Against Police and Procuratorate

Mr. Wang exposed the police for fabricating evidence against him and also accused the Linghai City Procuratorate of failing to investigate the police-supplied evidence, as required by law.

The first piece of police-supplied evidence was video footage captured on March 20, 2023, by the security team at Yulan Villa, a residential complex in Jinzhou City. The footage showed a man driving a car near the villa. The police claimed that the video was proof that Mr. Wang had distributed Falun Gong materials in the villa because the make and model of the car were the same as his and the man in the video looked very much like him. More than ten officers seized him two days later, as soon as he left work and stepped out of his company’s office building. They proceeded to ransack his home, with no other people witnessing the raid.

Mr. Wang said that the video footage failed to prove that the man in the video was indeed him. Additionally, the video didn’t even show the man passing out any materials.

The second piece of police-supplied evidence was a home surveillance video submitted to them by resident Hao in Yulan Villa. The footage showed a man holding a bag outside Hao’s home. The police alleged that the video was proof that Mr. Wang had hung Falun Gong materials on the doorknob of Hao’s home. Mr. Wang pointed out that the video didn’t show the man taking things out of his bag or putting things in the bag. Moreover, the video was not clear enough to show what the man looked like.

The third piece of police-supplied evidence was a photo of Mr. Wang standing by the doorknob of a house in Yulan Villa. He said that one day after his arrest, the police brought him to that house and hung a bag on the doorknob before taking a picture of him. He pointed out that the house was not Hao’s home and he didn’t know what was in the bag.

The fourth piece of police-supplied evidence was an interrogation record submitted to the Linghai City Procuratorate but never shown to Mr. Wang. He said that the police did show him some documents, and that he acknowledged this upon noting it was indeed about what he said during the interrogation. But according to his lawyer, the interrogation record submitted to the Linghai City Procuratorate by the police contained incriminating information against him. He suspected that the police submitted a totally different version without allowing him to read it.

When prosecutor Li Feng went to the local detention center to question Mr. Wang, he requested that the Procuratorate investigate the evidence as required by law before making an indictment decision. Li ignored him and left after only a few minutes, without listening to him explain how the police had fabricated evidence against him. Mr. Wang also said that Li was very rude to him.

Lawyer Refutes Allegations Against Mr. Wang

Mr. Wang’s lawyer echoed his arguments about the two videos the police used against him. The lawyer also pointed out that witness Hao was not in court to accept cross examination. Moreover, there was no independent, third-party forensic authentication of Hao’s home surveillance video or Yulan Villa’s security video as required by law.

The lawyer also noted something unusual – three important steps in Mr. Wang’s prosecution all happened on the same day, May 8. The police submitted the case to the Procuratorate on that day and the Procuratorate indicted him later that day before forwarding the case to the court hours later.

By law, a thorough investigation is required at each step of the prosecution, but the Procuratorate did not perform due diligence.

Prosecutor Li Feng charged Mr. Wang with “using a cult to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners. Mr. Wang’s lawyer emphasized that China’s law-making body, the People’s Congress, has never criminalized Falun Gong or labeled it as a cult. Moreover, Mr. Wang was merely following Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person, and he didn’t cause any harm to any individual or society at large, much less undermine law enforcement. As such, the charges against him lacked legal basis.

The lawyer demanded Mr. Wang’s acquittal.

Mr. Wang’s Closing Argument

Judge Huang asked Mr. Wang if he had anything more to say towards the end of the hearing. Mr. Wang said that Falun Gong enabled him to quit his bad habits and become a much better person. He reminded everyone that the communist regime once supported Falun Gong before the persecution began in 1999. Qiao Shi, then chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, conducted a survey in 1998 and concluded that Falun Gong benefited society by improving people’s minds and bodies.

Mr. Wang posed a question, “Falun Gong teaches its students to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be good people. Isn’t it better if we have more good people in society?”

Judge Huang said he would issue a ruling later, and adjourned the session at at around 11:30 a.m.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Wang Lijun (王立君), captain of Hi-Tech Industry Development Zone Domestic Security OfficeLi Feng (李峰), prosecutor: [phone], [phone]Huang Yanchun (黄艳春), judge: [phone]

Related Report:

Five Liaoning Residents Detained for Practicing Falun Gong