The police department, the local procuratorial system, and the local court system in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province conspired to prevent Falun Gong practitioner Li Zhigang's defence lawyer from mounting a legal defence to prove his innocence. Li's legal counsel is a conscientious lawyer from Beijing. He received a notice from a so-called prosecutor named Song Chengzhang of the Nangang District Court on June 17th, 2009. According to the notice, the court was going to conduct the trial for Li Zhigang's case at 9:00 a.m. on June 22nd. The lawyer then travelled from Beijing to Harbin and appeared at the Nangang District Court on June 22nd. On that day, Song told the lawyer, "The city sent out an ad-doc notice. It said that this case is a special case and the trial will not take place today after all. You can make copies of the case file today though." (The "city" means the local 610 Office1 as well as the city Political and Law Committee. And, in the past, Li's lawyer was prevented on multiple occasions from reading the case file as well as making copies of the case file). Song also warned the lawyer not to give the copied case file to the media or publish it on the Internet.
Li Zhigang is a Falun Gong practitioner in the Nangang District of Harbin City. On February 28th, 2009, a group of policemen broke down the front door of his home and arrested him. Li's mother found a local defence lawyer who agreed to take Li's case. However, after he was threatened by Wang Liguo and Huang Yaoming, the head and the deputy head of the Nangang District Domestic Security Team, respectively, the local lawyer was forced to drop the case. Li's mother then hired a conscientious lawyer from Beijing to defend Li. That lawyer was also harassed by the Harbin Police Department, the local procuratorial system, and the court system under various false pretences. After the lawyer fought the harassment on legal grounds, the court on the surface agreed to allow the lawyer to participate in the case. However, it secretly conspired with the local police department and tried to prevent the lawyer from fulfilling his legal duty to his client.
On June 22nd, Li's family members told Song Chenggang, "Our family is not wealthy. The lawyer has made a long journey from Beijing. He has come to Harbin several times because of this case. The expenses have grown to be quite big. We hope that the trial date will not be postponed yet again." Song completely ignored Li's family members. Li's family members later determined that Song had known a long time ago that the trial wouldn't be held on June 22nd, yet he deliberately withheld that information from Li's defence lawyer as well as from Li's family members.
Li Zhigang's lawyer then asked to meet with Li to obtain information needed for relevant legal procedures. Song Chenggang said, "That's fine. Go to see him." The defence lawyer explained that when he tried to meet with Li Zhigang at the local detention centre on the morning of June 19th, 2009, Sun Wei, the head of the detention centre, openly said that Song had forbidden the two to meet. Song disputed that account and claimed that he had never said that. Therefore, the lawyer went back to the Nangang Detention Centre and tried to meet with Li again. Sun Wei again wouldn't allow the lawyer to meet with Li and said, "Li Zhigang's case has already been tried. I don't understand why you need to meet with him." The attorney was very surprised by what Sun had said. The lawyer did hear a rumour that Li's trial had already taken place on June 5th without the lawyer's knowledge. The lawyer had called Song Chenggang to ask about the rumour in early June, and at that time Song stated that the trial had not taken place yet. But the head of the local detention centre was again stating that the trial had taken place already. Based on the evidence, one can't help wondering whether the trial has indeed already taken place or not. If it hasn't, why would the authorities continue to prevent the defence lawyer from meeting with his client?
Li's elderly mother was so worried about her son that her heart problems worsened. The lawyer felt sorry for Li's family members. He contacted the Appeals Division of the Nangang District Police Department, and complained about how the local detention centre head, Sun Wei, had prevented him from meeting with his client. The head of the Appeals division with the surname of Meng called Sun Wei. Sun Wei finally told the truth - he had received an order from Wang Qinglin, the deputy department head at the Nanggang District Police Department, to forbid any meeting between the two. According to Sun, Wang didn't say why the order was made. The lawyer then called Wang Qinglin repeatedly, but Wang didn't answer the phone. The lawyer then called other heads of the police department, but he couldn't get any of them to answer the phone either.
The following is a list of phone numbers of people responsible for this atrocious act:
Song Chengzhang, the "prosecutor" of the case: 86-13796685933, 86-451-82721457 (office), 86-451-82502616 (mobile)
Dong Xingdong, head of the district court: 86-451-82719104 (office)
Yu Chenghe, deputy head of the district court: 86-451-82721967 (office)
Yan Xiaoxia, deputy head of the district court: 86-451-82704934 (office)
Wang Liguo, head of the Nangang District Police Department: 86-451-87664311 (office), 13354515677 (mobile)
Nangang Detention Centre: 86-451-87664276
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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/7/6/204062.html
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