On November 12th, 2009, the Harbin City Nangang District Court sentenced Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Li Zhigang to five years in prison. His family hired attorneys to represent him in court. However, the Nangang District Court and Detention Centre hindered the judicial process by rejecting the lawyers' requests to meet with Mr. Li. As a result, the lawyers have yet to obtain Mr. Li's signature, which is needed to appeal.
Mr. Li Zhigang is 38 years old. On February 28th, 2009, officer Li Shuxin from the Harbin City 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), officers Wang Liguo and Hao Xidong from the Nangang District Domestic Security Division, and officers Ma Liang and Li Zhijie from the Hexing Road Police Station arrived at Mr. Li's home and took him away. Mr. Li has now been detained at the Nangang District Detention Centre for 9 months. He was brutally tortured during interrogations over the course of three days by officers Wang Liguo and Zhou Songbin from the Nangang District Domestic Security Division and officers from the 610 Office.
On April 2nd, Wang Baolong and others from the Harbin City Nangang District Procuratorate issued an official arrest warrant for Mr. Li. On May 14th, they filed a lawsuit against him in the Nangang District Court.
On October 30th, the Nangang District Court held a public trial for Mr. Li in remote Wanggang Township. Only Mr. Li's parents were allowed to attend under the scrutiny of officer Fang Xiangrui and someone named Shan from the Nangang District Domestic Security Division. Other relatives and friends of Mr. Li were not allowed to attend the proceedings. On the day of the trial, the Wanggang Township Court was closed down and under tight security.
Mr. Li appeared in court and stated that he was brutally interrogated and tortured. His lawyer refuted the evidence provided by the public prosecutor, Wang Baolong. Prosecutor Wang had little to offer in response to the defence lawyer's powerful arguments.
On November 3rd, three days after the trial, Hexing District Party Secretary Shao Liqing and her male colleague visited Mr. Li's parents. Also present was officer Wang Zhengang, who had previously extorted 6,000 yuan1 from Mr. Li's parents in exchange for releasing Mr. Li after he was detained for going to Beijing to exercise his constitutional right to appeal for Falun Gong. Shao tried to get Li's parents to persuade him to admit his guilt, but his mother refused because she knew that her son had not done anything wrong. Shao's colleague then threatened that the parents would also be implicated. Mr. Li's father asked whether the whole family would be implicated in this fabricated case. Shao then did an about-face and said, "We are only here to check if you have any problems. Do you need any help from us?" Mr. Li's mother replied, "Yes, there's a problem. My son's car has been taken away by officers from the Hexing Road Police Station and we saw it being driven a few days ago. Help us to get it back!" Shao said, "Okay. I'll help and ask around." However, so far Shao has not contacted them.
On November 12th, chief judge Yan Xiaoshuang, with the assistance of assistant judge Ma Rongyao, Song Chengzhang, court clerk Lu Jingwei from the Nangang District Court, and prosecutor Wang Baolong from the Nangang District Procuratorate, in collaboration with the 610 Office, sentenced Mr. Li to five years in prison.
On November 17th, assistant judge Son Chengzhang from the Nangang District Court called and notified Mr. Li's lawyer, Li Changming, of the verdict. The lawyer asked the court to send the verdict to his law firm in Beijing. However, Song replied, "We don't have the money [to send you the verdict]. You will have to come get it in person."
Mr. Li's mother decided to continue to seek justice for her son and hired lawyers Li Changming and Lin Jinglin to file an appeal for Mr. Li.
On the morning of November 23rd, the two lawyers went to the Nangang District Court to look for Judge Song Chengzhang and retrieve the verdict statement. They then went to the Nangang District Detention Centre to see Mr. Li. However, the chief of the detention centre, Sun Wei (police badge number 018169), said the court would not allow them to see Mr. Li. The lawyers immediately returned to the Nangang District Court and called Judge Song. Song denied the lawyers' request and shouted, "Why don't you just sue me?"
Lawyer Li then called Chief Judge Yan Xiaoshuang, Deputy Court Director Sun Jixian, Chief Judge Dong Xingdong, and others during office hours but none of them was available. The lawyers had no choice but to return to the Nangang District Detention Centre. Sun Wei, the director of the detention centre, still denied the lawyers' request to see their client. Lawyer Lin said, "We have the legal right to see him. You are violating the law if you don't allow us to see him." Sun Wei shouted, "Just sue me!" The two lawyers waited until noon and left without seeing their client.
In the afternoon, the two lawyers and Mr. Li's parents again went to see Sun Wei in the Nangang District Detention Centre. However, Sun still rejected their lawful request. He said, "It's okay if you want to see him, but it has to be approved by the 610 Office."
At the time of this writing, Mr. Li had not yet been able to sign the documents that are necessary for him to appeal his sentence because he has not yet been allowed to see his attorneys.
Note
1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.
Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/11/26/213335.html
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