Eleven Lawyers and 127 Family Members Co-Sign Letter to Protest Against Shijiazhuang Municipal Intermediate Court

The court system under the Chinese Communist regime has long been the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) accomplice to suppress its citizens. The Shijiazhuang Municipal Intermediate Court in Hebei Province is a typical example.

During a Trial for Ms. Wang Bo, the Court Stopped the Defence Lawyer from Making a Defence

The trial of Shijiazhuang practitioner Wang Bo was held on April 27th, 2007. The Shijiazhuang Municipal Intermediate Court colluded with more than 600 police and special agents and sealed off the street in front of the court. One day before the court session, they put dozens of Falun Gong practitioners who were going to the hearing under house arrest. On the day of the hearing, they arrested Liang Yening and Qiu Liying at the gate of the court even though they had already gotten the hearing permits. During the session, Wei Shuzhen, Judge of the Second Criminal Court, reprimanded the court bailiff for not watching the door closely and allowing family members of the defendant to enter the court to witness the trial.

Presiding Judge Lu Ling didn't allow the defence lawyer to make an argument on the point of whether the law quoted was applicable. Li Heping, Teng Bao and four other lawyers resolutely carried on and pleaded not guilty. After the session was over, the judges were furious. Liu Bin ordered a bailiff to grab the defence documents from Lawyer Li Heping and ordered bailiffs to beat Lawyer Teng Bao.

The Case of Song Aichang - the Intermediate Court Undermined the System of Justice

Song Aichang

Practitioner Mr Song Aichang from Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province was taken away by police outside his residential building on June 22nd, 2007. He has been detained in a detention centre for almost twenty months. He has been through three separate trials and re-trials, and is in the middle of his fourth trial. The lower court judges agreed that the evidence was insufficient, but he ended up being sentenced to three years in prison. During the first trial, the Shijiazhuang Municipal Intermediate Court sent a letter to the Qiaoxi District Court, instructing it to come to a sentence of three years in prison, which is exactly the verdict that was handed down.

Wang Sanying's Case of Wrongful Sentencing

The case of Ms. Wang Sanying from Shijiazhuang City was even more bizarre. The lawyer requested an extension. The Presiding Judge of the Second Criminal Court of Shijiazhuang Municipal Intermediate Court, Wei Shuzhen, and Judge Wang Yingchen told the him that an extension would be granted. However, the family soon received notice in the mail of the sentence given to Ms. Wang. Another hearing was never held as promised, and the lawyer's arguments were never heard.

127 Family Members of Falun Gong Practitioners and 11 Lawyers Co-Sign a Letter

Facing the court system's blatantly illegal behaviour, quite a few human rights lawyers have stepped forward to bravely defend Falun Gong practitioners.

The defence lawyers of practitioner Song Aichang (Cheng Hai, Li Xiongbing, Tang Jitian, Xie Yanyi, Li Shunchang and Yang) and practitioner Wang Sanying (Sun Hongli, Li Subing, Li Heping, Jiang Tianyong and Mo Shaoping), together with the two practitioners' family members, presented a co-signed letter to the Hebei Provincial High Court regarding the Shijiazhuang Intermediate Court's unjust actions and requested that the appeal hearings be held in a different court.

In the letter, they suggested that the high court investigate and prosecute those who were negligent in their duties and acted against the law in these cases. Lawyer Jiang Tianyong said to Radio Free Asia, "What the Shijiazhuang Intermediate Court has done seriously undermines China's judicial system."

He said, "The court conducting the first trial should have independently exercised its jurisdiction. If the litigant was not satisfied with the trial result, he/she can lodge an appeal to the court of second instance, who will give its independent judgement according to their own interpretation of the law and the evidence. The ruling derived there may be the final judgement. But during the trial process of the first instance, if the court of second instance has already been issued a written judgement of how to rule on the case, then the judgement of the first trial itself is the result of the intervention of the court of second instance. Then what's the use of our lodging an appeal to the court of second instance?"

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/4/21/199392.html