Jiansanjiang Court officials in Heilongjiang Province scheduled a trial for Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Jiang Xinbo from Qianjin Town on December 1st, 2009. Her husband hired two lawyers from Beijing to enter a not-guilty plea. He wrote about the positive changes his wife experienced after practising Falun Gong and circulated it among his colleagues at Qianjin Middle School where his wife also worked before her arrest. More than 40 teachers signed the document to show their support and sympathy.
Once they learned the husband had retained two lawyers, agents from the Jiansanjiang Court, from the Domestic Security Division, and from the Political and Legal Committee were extremely worried that their persecution of Ms. Jiang, an excellent teacher, would be exposed. The officials were still haunted by the defence another lawyer made when Jiansanjiang Court officials tried several practitioners in 2009. This time they were simply terrified. Not only did they postpone the trial date, but they also went online to check on the lawyers. Since one of the lawyers had visited the United States in 2005 for advanced training, they claimed that he had "background and overseas forces' support," and began their attempts to prevent Ms. Jiang Xinbo's husband from hiring them to defend his wife.
They first exerted pressure on Qianjin Middle School officials. As a result, the school gathered the 43 teachers who signed the husband's statement and ordered them to write repentance letters. Ms. Jiang's husband was also ordered to write a repentance letter1, which he did under great duress and against his will. But the school officials told him the letter wasn't good enough and forced him to re-write it. In the meantime they threatened to fire him if he didn't dismiss the lawyers. Even so, he still insisted on retaining them.
Seeing that nothing had worked so far, agents from the above-mentioned organisations then sent people to abduct Ms. Jiang's husband, who had already been suspended from teaching. While at Jiansanjiang Court they further intimidated him, telling him the court would hand his wife a heavy sentence, no matter how hard the lawyers tried to defend her. They also pressured Ms. Jiang's relatives at the same time. Unable to bear the pressure this time, her husband signed his name to the pre-written agreement to dismiss the lawyers.
Having achieved their goal, they planned to convene the trial on January 16th, 2010. Fearing that other practitioners would come to the court to expose the officials' crimes, they began to harass and arrest local practitioners on the afternoon of January 11th. They seized nine practitioners in two days: Cao Xiufang, Sun Xianhua, Zhang Lihua, Zhang Xizeng, Han Shujuan, and Zhang Yanqiu from Jiansanjiang, and Eng Xianjie, Pan Shurong, and a practitioner surnamed Lu from Qianjin Town. They held them at the Jiansanjiang Detention Centre and at the Qianjin Town Detention Centre, respectively.
Ms. Han Shujuan and her father were home when agents appeared to arrest her. She tried to resist, but no one could overcome the efforts of the more than ten policemen who took her away. Ms. Han is now at the Beihao Detention Centre. Her father, in his 70s, is paralysed on one side of his body and badly needs help.
While on her way to a market, Ms. Meng Xianjie and her husband thought to stop by her workplace to see the Party secretary. They didn't find the secretary but were shocked to find numerous police officers when they came downstairs. More than 30 men surrounded her, while eight other agents kept her husband away from her. They took her husband to the reception room of her workplace and refused to let him leave until around ten minutes later. They then took Ms. Meng to the local detention centre.
Ms. Pan Shurong was working in her own family-owned shop when 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) head Shi Ping and six police officers broke in. They smashed the glass on the door and the windows and carried her away.
Note
1. Repentance Statement: In this statement the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/1/17/216398.html
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