District Court Judge Persecutes Falun Gong Practitioners in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province

On April 11th, 2007, at 9 a.m., Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Li Shaozhi was scheduled to go on trial at the Xiangyang District Court of Jiamusi City. The presiding judge for the trial was Zhao Yubin. In front of the courthouse gate, policemen were on watch, forbidding anyone from entering the courthouse. To the west of the courthouse, many police vehicles were parked along the street, blocking off the pedestrian crossing. Inside the gate, there were also multiple layers of guards. The two family members who accompanied the attorneys were body searched and questioned by the police to prevent any recordings of the court proceeding. All the high security that had been ordered by the court authorities was out of fear that their persecution of Falun Gong practitioners would be exposed to the public.

Zhao Yubin, male, 45 years old, presiding judge of the first court division, Jiamusi City's Xiangyang District Court. Mr. Li Shaozhi's case was the first piece of evidence of his direct participation in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. In April 2007, the case of practitioner Li Shaozhi, who was forcibly arrested by Chen Wanyou, a police officer from Jiamusi City Police Department, was transferred to the Xiangyang District Court and Zhao Yubin was the presiding judge of that case as well. When Mr. Li's attorney followed standard legal procedure and requested to photocopy the legal documents of the case, Zhao Yubin denied the request and claimed that he needed to check with his superior. At the end of that session, he told the attorney, "We are going to be off duty. Come again at 4 o'clock in the afternoon." When the attorney came back at 4 p.m., Zhao Yubin was nowhere to be found and the co-worker in his office said, "Judge Zhao is in a meeting. Come again tomorrow afternoon." The attorney went to the court the next day, only to learn from the court director that Zhao Yubin had asked for a leave of absence and would be gone for a week. A few days later, the above mentioned trial happened.

The second piece of evidence for Zhao Yubin's participation in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners was the trial of practitioner Ms. Cui Shengyun. This time he was obviously more experienced than before and fully prepared. At 1:30 p.m. on August 28th, 2007, without notifying Ms. Cui's family or attorney, Zhao Yubin ordered Ms. Cui Shengyun to be secretly transferred from Jiamusi City's Second Detention Centre to the criminal court, where there were only a few tables and chairs. During the trial, Ms. Cui, extremely weak and in handcuffs, requested her family be present but her legal right was denied by Zhao Yubin. She was also denied the lawful citizen's right to defend herself in court. On September 13th, 2007, Ms. Cui was sentenced to five years in prison.

On July 7th, 2009, Zhao Yubin participated in persecuting practitioners, including Mr. Yu Yungang, Mr. Fu Yu, Ms. Liu Xiufang, and Mr. Wu Zhigang. The Xiangyang District Court lied to the public that the trial would be open to the public, while they instead set up the temporary court at the Jiamusi City Detention Centre, in a rural area outside the city.

On the morning before trial, Mr. Fu Yu's mother, relatives and friends went to the court and asked for the time of the trial but their request for this information was denied by Zhao Yubin, who said, "The trial time is not determined yet. Family members do not have the right to ask." Around 9 p.m. the same day, the court authorities suddenly notified the families of Mr. Yu Yungang, Mr. Fu Yu, Ms. Liu Xiufang, and Mr. Wu Zhigang that the trial would be held 9 a.m. the following morning, at the Jiamusi City Detention Centre.

The whole trial lasted over two hours. Zhao Yubin told the prosecutor Fang Baosen from Xiangyang District Procuratorate to pick a few key sentences from the indictment to read. During the whole process, Falun Gong practitioners were only allowed to answer yes or no. In the end, Zhao only allowed each practitioner two sentences in what he called "self defence." In the beginning of the trial, there were about twenty people in attendance, while at the end only three policemen remained. Personnel from Jiamusi City's Politics and Law Committee came and watched the trial. The court eventually announced that they would "pronounce the sentences another day."

On July 29th, Mr. Fu Yu's mother, a women in her 70's went to Xiangyang District Court and requested to have the trial results from Zhao Yubin. As Zhao was not present at the time, a woman in the office answered the request. As soon as she knew that the request was about a case involving Falun Gong practitioners, she immediately changed her tone, "Who said you could come in here? You don't have the right to ask about the case." While saying this, she drove Mr. Fu's mother out of the office and called the security guards. When Mr. Fu's mother and family members asked to wait for Zhao Yubin, she threatened, "If you don't leave right away, I will have security take you out." At the moment, Zhao came in the office. After he figured out what was going on, he said, "If you want to ask, go to the detention centre and ask the detainee himself." Mr. Fu's family then wanted to see the court director to ask him directly. As soon as Zhao Yubin found the family had not left the court, he started looking for the family everywhere in the building until he intercepted them in front of the court director's office. He said, "This is the director's office. You are not allowed here! No reason needs to be given. Just leave!" Mr. Fu's family left in disappointment.

As they passed by the appeals office, they had a thread of hope and went in to ask. They did not expect that Zhao ordered court officials and security guards to follow them ,and as soon as they found the family trying to enter the appeals office, they stopped them. They also forced the family to answer if they were Falun Gong practitioners themselves. In the end, Mr. Fu's mother and family had to leave.

Later, the families tried various channels and learned that the court had sentenced Mr. Yu Yungang to eight years in prison, Mr. Wu Zhigang to six years in prison, Mr. Fu Yu to five years in prison, and Ms. Liu Xiufang to three years in prison.

Because Zhao Yubin very actively participates in the persecution of Falun Gong, the Xiangyang District Court specially assigned him a luxury car for his personal use.

Zhao Yubin's office: 86-454-6065626

Chinese version available at hhttp://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/10/22/210918.html