Changchun Court Forces Practitioner's Defence Lawyer to Break His Contract

In April, the Chinese Communist Party Court and Judiciary Department in the Nanguan District of Changchun City, Jilin Province, notified the family of Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Gao Shuyu of her court date. A year ago she was arrested and has been detained ever since. At the same time, the authorities forced the lawyer that Ms. Gao's family had hired to break his contract with her family.

Ms. Gao Shuyu is 54 years old and lives in Changchun City. She worked in the Xinhua Bookstore in Changchun City before she retired. She previously had thyroid neoplasm, heart disease, high blood pressure, and menopause symptoms, among other ailments. After she started practising Falun Gong, all these conditions disappeared.

In March 2008, Ms. Gao and the younger sister of Ms. Zhu Shuyun, went to Heizuizi Women's Forced Labour Camp in Changchun City to visit Ms. Zhu, but the labour camp did not let them meet. Ms. Zhu had been severely persecuted. Not long after, the labour camp set up an appointment with Ms. Gao and the sister of Ms. Zhu Shuyun to "talk," and the police secretly recorded the conversation on videotape. Afterwards Ms. Gao was followed and monitored by the police.

The police from the Nanguan Branch of Changchun City arrested her and ransacked her home on April 22nd, 2008. Ms. Gao was detained in the Third Detention Centre of Changchun City Police Station. On May 23rd, Li Jun, the person that handled her case from the Nanguan Branch of Changchun City, sent fabricated documents to the Procuratorate of the Nanguan District. On December 6th, Nanguan District Procuratorate filed the complaint in the Nanguan District Court. In late December, Sun Jianbo, the person in charge of her case at Nanguan District Court, called her family to tell them that the court date was January 6th, 2009.

Ms. Gao's family hired a lawyer from the Huagang Law Firm of Changchun City. The lawyer met Ms. Gao in the detention centre, but he was forbidden to legally copy the case in Nanguan District Court and was told by the Court that the court date had been postponed. In February 2009, when Ms. Gao's family checked on the status of the case with the lawyer, and learned that the Nanguan District Court had lied to the lawyer, saying that the case was not in the Court, and was instead in the Procuratorate. Ms. Gao's family checked with the Procuratorate. Zhang Hongmei, the person in charge of the case there, said the case had been sent to Nanguan District Court on December 6th, 2008, and had never come back to the Procuratorate. The family asked Sun Jianbo again, and he told them to go home and wait for the Court's notice.

Ms. Gao's family received a phone call from the lawyer on April 10th, 2009. They went to the lawyer's office, where he told them that he was under severe pressure and was not allowed to defend those who practise Falun Gong. The office had been ordered to make up an excuse to break the contract with Ms. Gao's family. Though they had done some work, they had to break the contract with her family. Her family didn't expect this, and also sensed that the lawyer and the law firm were being pressured by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Right before the end of the business day, Ms. Gao's family received a phone call from Nanguan District Court explaining that the court date had changed to Tuesday, April 14th, 2009, and that the Court would assign Ms. Gao a lawyer. The Court notified her family at the end of the day on Friday so that the family wouldn't be able to make any other arrangements. The court date was the following Tuesday, way too soon for Ms. Gao's family to hire another lawyer. The court-assigned lawyer will have said whatever the Court wanted him to say.

Hiring a lawyer to defend oneself is a Constitutional right in China. However, in China today, the police, the Procuratorate, the courts and the judiciary department are brutally interfering with this legal right.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/4/15/198972.html