Court Sentences Hong Kong Practitioner Ms. Zeng Aihua to Prison Without Notifying Her Family or Lawyer

In March of 2007, Hong Kong Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Zeng Aihua was tried and sentenced to three years in prison. She appealed, but the Shanghai No. 1 Middle People's Court rejected her appeal. She was tried a second time, but the court did not notify her family or lawyer. Ms. Zeng was taken to Shanghai Women's Prison on April 16th.

To conceal their criminal act, the Shanghai 610 Office¹ and the Public Security Bureau secretly manipulated Zeng Aihua's second trial. One month after the second trial her family and lawyer were still kept completely in the dark and did not know anything about it.

Ms. Zeng Aihua's family and lawyer saw her in court in February 2007 during the first trial, but they were unable to see her or get any information about her after that. The Public Security Bureau deliberately arranged her first trial to be before the New Year (February 12th) so that her 10-day-appeal period would fall on the holidays. The court was closed during this time, and on-call personnel would not answer anything related to her case. Since it has to be the defendant who initiates the appeal, her family and attorney were very worried that Zeng Aihua might not know this and they could not deliver the message to her. After the New Year, they found out that Zeng Aihua had indeed filed her appeal to the Shanghai No. 1 Middle People's Court.

Ms. Zeng's lawyer, Wen Haipo requested that personnel at the Shanghai Pudongxinqu Court, where she was sentenced, send the case material and all the related letters to him at the No. 1 Middle People's Court. His request was unjustifiably rejected.

During the next two months, lawyer Wen Haipo had no choice but to keep calling the No. 1 Middle People's Court, which was handling the case. Each time he was told that they did not receive the case, so Zeng Aihua lost the chance for her alawyer to defend her.

On April 20th, Zeng Aihua's family received a letter from Zeng at the Shanghai Women's Prison. It was the first letter her family had received since she was arrested on May 23rd, 2006. They realised that she had been sent to prison several days earlier.

Her family called the Shanghai No. 1 Middle People's Court and enquired about the case. They were told that the second trial was over, and the Judge's name was Chen Li. Chen Li admitted that the court decided not to open the court, and that she just read through the case, without seeing Zeng Aihua or the witness. She claimed that during the week of March 7th-15th, no lawyer had contacted them about the case, so they did not notify her attorney. The defence was only from Zeng Aihua's written appeal, which made just one point, that Falun Dafa is not an [Jiang Zemin's slanderous term deleted]. Chen Li claimed that she had no choice but to reject the appeal and keep the original verdict.

When Zeng's family asked Chen Li on what grounds she kept the original verdict, she was ambiguous and vaguely stated that it was based on the law written by the people's delegate, but could not tell the family which exact law. Chen Li asked the family to look it up themselves online. Her family asked why they never received any notification even one month after the verdict. Chen Li stated that the verdict had been sent on March 15th to the local Puxing Road Police Station which handles the district where Zeng's temporary address is, Pudongxinqu 780 Wulian Road. The police were supposed to deliver the verdict in person to the family.

When Zeng's family called the police station, they spoke to several officers, all of whom seemed quite nervous and they kept changing their story. First they refused to answer any questions over phone, then they told her family they could come to the police station in person to enquire. They repeatedly stated that the policeman who should have delivered the letter was named Qiu Lin and he was out on business, so they would have to wait until he returned from the trip, while in actuality he was at the police station when the phone call took place. The next day, police at the station gave their final answer: They never received the verdict. The court insisted that they had sent out the verdict, yet the police station denied that they received it. No one would take responsibility for the verdict from the second trial.

The entire event was a big blow to Zeng Aihua's family. They could not believe that their loved one was deprived of her right of defence. Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not notify them of the verdict, they only knew of the results because of her letter from prison. They raised a strong protest against the trial and the secret cover-up.

From the information we received, cases like Zeng's are quite common in Shanghai. There were several cases involving Falun Dafa practitioners who were not given open court hearings for their second trial, and no notification was given to their lawyers or families, even after the practitioners were sentenced to prison. Most of them found out via their loved one's letter from prison. There are two middle courts in Shanghai, No. 1 and 2 Middle People's Court, and similar cases have appeared in both courts. They are directly manipulated by the City Public Security Bureau and 610 Office.

The CCP knows the verdicts are completely illegal, which is why they used all means to cover up the cases, deprive the practitioners of their rights of defence, and failed to notify the families. It was to reduce the possibility of tarnishing the reputation of the CCP in society.

Zeng Aihua is being held in Shanghai Women's Prison No. 5 Battalion, No. 1 District. There are many Falun Dafa practitioners held there.

Relevant phone numbers:

Shanghai No. 1 Middle People's Court
Operator: 86-21-34254567
Responsible judge, Chen Li: 86-2134254567-2044, secretary Chen (responsible for case material and sending verdict): 86-21-34254567-2045

Shanghai Women's Prison: 86-21-57615998 x4500
No. 5 Battalion leader: Cao Chunhua,86-2157615998x4510, 86-21-57615998
Policeman Qiu Lin who arrested Zeng Aihua: 86-13386286192 (mobile)

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/4/154109.html