Five Falun Gong practitioners from Huining County, Gansu Province, including He Yuhu, Han Xiufang, Jin Yinwu, and Feng Caihong, were arrested in September 2011 as they were speaking with villagers about Falun Gong. The practitioners have now been held for more than five months in a detention centre. Huining County Court officials scheduled a trial for them on February 28th, 2012.
In response, local practitioners widely circulated an invitation to county residents to attend the court proceedings. They felt that people from all walks of life should go and observe upstanding lawyers enter non-guilty pleas for the practitioners. People who received the invitations were pleasantly surprised and expressed their willingness to attend the court hearing. This has caused the 610 Office agents (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) who were instrumental in trying to persecute these practitioners to panic.
Legal personnel who have learned the facts about Falun Gong are no longer following the orders of the local Political and Judiciary Committee and 610 Offices, and are refusing to persecute innocent people. These illegal acts go against their conscience and the law. Huining County Procuratorate officials have twice returned cases that involved persecuting Falun Gong practitioners; nevertheless, the Political and Judiciary Committee and 610 Office agents insisted and forced the procurators to submit the files to the court. Court personnel were pressured to accept the case. When the practitioners' families talked to the judges, the court personnel repeatedly said that they didn't want to accept and hear the case, but the county 610 Office ordered them to do so.
Fearful that the practitioners' lawyers would expose the senseless persecution of practitioners and their deceptive tactics, regime agents and several court staff members threatened and intimidated the practitioners' families, attempting to prevent them from hiring the lawyers. They also deliberately made things difficult and tried to stop the lawyers from going through normal legal procedures. First, presiding judge Yan Longbing used a variety of excuses to refuse to accept the lawyers' retainer agreement, and rejected the lawyer's request to photocopy the practitioners' files. Next, detention centre head Lian Quanzhen would not allow the lawyer to meet with practitioner He Yuhu, until the lawyer obtained the signatures of heads of the court and police department, and got his approval – all of which should have been unnecessary, and not required by the law.
On February 16th, the Political and Judiciary Committee and 610 Office agents ordered the court to make an announcement that the trial would be held on February 21st. However, three days later, on February 19th, the court announced that the February 21st trial was cancelled and would be rescheduled. Their intention was to see how local practitioners and the general public would respond, and how much resistance they may be facing from the public, as gauged through public response in social media.
The court furthermore allowed only two family members of each practitioner to observe the court proceedings, and the other seats were occupied by their designated internal personnel.
610 Office agents spread rumours that Falun Gong practitioners would make trouble, in an attempt to confuse people and incite mistrust toward the practitioners. It has been learned that the police force of entire townships and towns were to be dispatched to beef up security during the court hearing. This show of force was actually a scare tactic meant to intimidate the local residents.
Parties responsible for the persecution:
Huining County Police Department:
Li Jihui, Political and Judiciary Committee head and police chief: +86-1363936100, +86-13639304033
Quan Lianzhen, detention centre head: +86-13639361313
Yan Longbing, criminal tribunal of Huining County Court: +86-18993393139
Please refer to the original Chinese article for more people and offices involved in the persecution.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2012/2/28/253599.html
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