Behind the Distorted Facts of Zou Gang's Murder Case

After watching China Central Television (CCTV)'s "Focal Interview" show that broadcast the distorted facts of the Zou Gang murder case, I want to report what I know to expose CCTV's lies, so that people will know what actually happened.

1.) Not too long after CCTV aired this show in 1999, an elderly woman who had been my neighbour for many years told me that she knew Zou and his family. She said, "Zou has never practised Falun Gong. None of his neighbours have heard anything even if he did. It does not make any sense. I do not understand how they could insist on TV that he practised Falun Gong." I also learned that Zou had a twin brother who was mentally ill, single, and lived with his father. It was a fact that Zou killed a person, severely injured another, and mildly injured a third. It is not clear whether the cause of his mental disorder is physiological, hereditary, or due to other reasons, but we do know that it has nothing to do with Falun Gong. Many people who knew Zou well have never believed the lies that CCTV broadcast.

2.) The murder case of Zou was originally handled by the Nangang District Police Station in Harbin City, but was later turned over to the City Police Department. Whether or not the City Police Department was involved in the case from the beginning is not clear. One thing is certain, though, that all involved police knew that it was a fabricated case. One day, near the end of December 1999, before CCTV aired their show, a policeman who was sympathetic to Falun Gong told me, "Falun Gong's tribulation is just too large. They will do anything to desecrate your Master." He briefly described Zou's case, and said, "At a glance, someone could tell that the guy is not a Falun Gong practitioner, but he insisted that he was one. What can you do?"

3.) During the time that Zou was detained (end of the year 1999); the police gathered a few illegally detained practitioners and called a meeting to "identify whether or not Zou Gang was a Falun Gong practitioner." The background and the true motive for their actions were not clear. Perhaps the police just wanted to be extra cautious, not aware that higher authorities were to completely distort the case. It could also be some other reason, but we have no way of knowing. Nonetheless, the meeting did take place.

In the meeting, the practitioners raised a few questions. Zou could not even understand some of them, let alone give correct answers. The question and answer session definitely determined that Zou was not a Falun Gong practitioner. Here are two examples:

A.) The practitioners put a few different Dafa books on the table, then asked Zou to identify the book that he or a Dafa study group would read daily. Zou flipped through one book after another. Finally, he pointed to The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa [a beginners book describing the exercise movements and does not contain the main teachings of Falun Dafa] and said, "This is the one." The police prompted him, "Are you sure? This does not look like the one." Zou turned to the page containing pictures of Master's demonstration and said affirming, "This is it." All of the practitioners knew that it should be "Zhuan Falun". Zou's choice showed that he definitely was not a Falun Gong practitioner.

B.) They asked Zou to demonstrate the five sets of the Falun Dafa exercise. It turned out that he did not know how to do the first four sets at all. For the fifth exercise, the sitting meditation, he held his hands together in the conjoined position (jie-yin) with his legs crossed casually, not in the double lotus position, closed his eyes and sat still. The police asked him if he should cross his legs some other way (prompting him about the full lotus position). He said, "This will do." The police asked him, "Before jie-yin, should there be some other movements (referring to the hand movements at the beginning of the fifth set of movement)?" Zou said, "No. This is it." This shows that all he knew was that the fifth exercise is a sitting movement, but had no real understanding of how to do it.

Zou's true identity was exposed. The people behind the scenes trying to distort the facts of his case to frame Falun Gong could not pull it off. The official internal conclusion was, "This person is not a Falun Gong practitioner. He claims to be one only to wish for a reduced sentence"

But the practitioners and the police who participated in the meeting could never have dreamed that a few days later, CCTV aired the show, claiming Zou as a Falun Gong practitioner who killed people.

4.) In early 2002, a practitioner told me that he knew some more facts when we were discussing Zou's case. He said, "After CCTV aired their report of the murder case, people within the police department and others who knew the real story were quite upset, but it was said that the police department issued an internal memo saying that Zou's murder case was wrongly judged, and everyone needs to take a lesson from it. Then the whole matter was swept under the carpet.

The fact that Zou received a death sentence later seemed to indicate that with their purpose of slandering Falun Dafa accomplished, they didn't want people to be able to investigate further.

No matter how great the Jiang Zemin regime's skills of deception are, or how horrible their brutality is, lies can never cover up the truth. Everything will become clear and evident one day, and the people responsible will be brought to justice.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/11/22/61057.html