Shanghai Police Set Up Barriers and Checkpoints Outside Courthouse during Trials of Falun Gong Practitioners

From 1:30 to 4:20 p.m. on October 21st, 2008, Shanghai Xuhui District Court held trials for Mr. Liu Peng, Ms. Zhang Xumei, and Ms. Zheng Yan. Mr. Liu's lawyer defended him. This is the first time the lawyer defended Falun Gong practitioners in the Shanghai area.

Both Mr. Liu Peng and his wife, Ms. Zhang Xumei, earned Master's degrees from East China Normal University. Their child is only eight years old. In the past eight years, they have been harassed, brainwashed with torture, arrested, sent to forced labour camps, and subjected to other forms of persecution by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) personnel time and again. Mr. Liu was imprisoned in a forced labour camp twice and inhumanly tortured. On the morning of Lantern Festival Day in 2008, the police arrested Ms. Zhang Xumei on her way to work. The police stole her keys, ransacked her home, and arrested her husband. During her detention, she was brutally tortured until she signed a confession. She was not allowed to sleep for three days and nights. She was released after being detained for a month.

At around 7 a.m. on August 1st, Ms. Zhang was again arrested while on her way to work.

The Shanghai authorities were afraid of people protesting the CCP persecution of Falun Gong, so they dispatched police to set up barriers and checkpoints outside the courthouse. There were more than 30 uniformed police officers in the vicinity of the courtroom. In addition, a lot of plain clothes officers walked around keeping an eye on pedestrians and vehicles. There were even plain clothes officers sitting inside tea houses at the corner. One insider said, "There are more than 80 police officers in the area, patrolling on foot and in vehicles."

Related article: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200811/46762.html

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/10/25/188480.html