A Handicapped Elderly Woman's Defence Arguments at her Trial in Kaifeng City

Name: Wang Zanmei
Gender: Female
Age: 63
Address: Qinglong Street, Qi County, Kaifeng City, Henan Province
Occupation: Unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 9th, 2009
Most Recent Place of Detention: Tongxu County Detention Centre
City: Kaifeng City
Province: Henan
Persecution Suffered: Arrested, jailed, forced labour, extortion, imprisonment

Key Persecutors: Chief Yang Yumei of the Chengguang Township Police Station; 610 Office in Kaifeng City; Longting District Police Station

Recently, the court in Longting District, Kaifeng City, Henan Province, tried a handicapped elderly Falun Gong practitioner. The practitioner represented herself and requested that the court drop all charges and release her.

Ms. Wang Zanmei had polio when she was young, leaving her left leg handicapped. She fell down several times a day for many years. Later, she developed heart problems, with insufficient blood supply to her brain. After she began to practise Falun Gong, all her illnesses went away.

Since July 20th, 1999, she has been arrested, jailed, sent to forced labour camp, imprisoned, and had money extorted from her. In July 2009, she was arrested by officers from the Longting District Police Station in Kaifeng City. Agents from the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) took her to the Tonxu County Detention Centre and have held her there ever since.

Reliable sources say that Ms. Wang was tried in the Tongxu County Court by a judge from the Longting District Court in Kaifeng City on April 14th, 2010.

During the trail, Ms. Wang represented herself and pleaded not guilty. After the court arguments, she asked the judge to acquit her and serve the cause of justice by stopping the persecution of all Falun Gong practitioners and release those who were being held.

Below is Ms. Wang's argument:

Honourable Judges and Secretary:

I am a citizen of the People's Republic of China. I used to live in extreme pain from different illnesses and once attempted to commit suicide. After becoming a Falun Gong practitioner, all my illnesses went away. I follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and think of others first. However, I have been repeatedly persecuted, arrested, jailed, put into a forced labour camp, imprisoned, and had money extorted from me. I am sorry that I am being put on trial today. I feel sorry for those law enforcers who only care about their own interests, pay no attention to morality and conscience, only carry out orders from above, and do not follow the law.

Nothing I did violated any law. The accusation of "obstruction of justice" is totally invalid. Article 36 of the Constitution says that Chinese Citizens have freedom of religion. No government agency, social organisation, or individual can force a citizen to believe or not believe in a religion, nor can they discriminate against a citizen who believes in or does not believe in a religion. Therefore, to believe in the divine or in Falun Gong is entirely legal. I would like to ask the judge to tell me which article of the law I violated? If you cannot point it out, then it means that I have been falsely charged.

The charges against me are all false, fabricated solely for the purpose of persecuting Falun Dafa and Falun Gong practitioners. It is not valid to claim that I am a "repeat offender" just because I have been arrested many times. Since July 20th, 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong, I have been persecuted repeatedly and taken into custody many times by different CCP organisations based on falsified charges. Who exactly committed crimes? Below are the facts surrounding each of my arrests:

I went to Beijing to appeal in 2000 to tell the government about the great value of Falun Gong based on my own experiences. I was arrested and taken to Xicheng Detention Centre in Beijing for 18 days. I was detained for another month after I came back to Qi County. I had 3,000 yuan¹ extorted from me by the 610 Office and the national security squadron of the police department in Qi County at the time of my release.

On January 18th, 2001, when I was preparing dinner, the national security squadron tricked me into going to the police department and took me to the detention centre. When my son asked them to let me come home for the New Year's Day holiday, the officer said, "We'll let your mother go home for the New Year if you bring in 5,000 yuan." My son could not afford that much money, so they charged me with "disturbing the order of society" and put me in jail. They kept me in jail until May 25th, 2001, and extorted 500 yuan from my family.

Around 1:00 a.m. on August 13th, 2001, Chief Yang Yumei of the Chengzheng Police Station of Qi County ordered officers to carry me to their car when I was asleep. They took me to the police station and locked me in a room with three male offenders. I had only my underwear on. When the police arbitrarily arrest citizens without any evidence, it is illegal and barbaric. I wrote a complaint and submitted it to the government at different levels. Not only did they not respond, they arrested and persecuted me again.

For example, on the night of September 26th, 2002, I was woken up by banging on my door. When my husband opened it, six or seven large plainclothes officers rushed in. Without any due process, they ransacked my house, took me into custody, and put me in the county jail. In jail, I was subjected to all sorts of torture because I would not give up my cultivation.

Around 5:00 p.m. on October 17th, 2003, when I was at my uncle's house taking care of my elderly aunt and uncle, a dozen or so officers, led by Chief Yang Yumei of the Chengguan Township Police Station in Qi County, broke in. They ransacked my uncle's house first and then went to my home and ransacked it. Without finding any evidence, they charged me with the offence of "disturbing the order of society" and detained me for 50 days.

At around 2:00 p.m. on September 13th, 2004, I went to the Political and Judicial Directory in Kaifeng City and turned in my appeal papers, but the officials there tore my papers into pieces without even looking at them. They then called the Qi County Police Department to have me arrested and detained me for eight days.

On the evening of December 6th, 2005, agents from the Kaifeng City 610 Office and the police department came to my home twice, but they were speechless after I told them the facts about Falun Gong and argued with them. They got upset and asked officers from Qi County National Security Squadron to arrest me. The National Security Squadron police knew if they came to my house to arrest me, all my family members and neighbours would criticise and stop them, and they would not succeed. So they asked the officers in the Chengnei Police Department of Qi County to call me, claiming that they were registering the residency for my husband. I was deceived and went to the police department, only to be arrested. Later, they sentenced me to one-and-a-half years of forced labour and took me to Shibalihe Women's Forced Labour Camp.

Each time I have been persecuted meant great pain and hardship for my family, especially my 90-year old mother. My poor mother and my husband both died in January 2009, and I went to live with my daughter in Kaifeng City in May, 2009. To lessen her burden, I worked as a nanny. However, within a month, I was arrested again by agents from the Kaifeng City 610 Office and Longting District Police Station, charged with "obstruction of justice." They arrested and tried me as a "repeat offender."

Honourable Judges, these are the "repeated offences" they have charged me with. From my statement you can see clearly who has violated the law and who has committed crimes. It is easy to tell who is righteous and who is evil. The charge against me of "obstructing justice" is totally invalid.

I am a 60-year-old, handicapped, old lady, cultivating to have good health and to be a good person. Why have I been persecuted repeatedly and am now being tried? I feel deeply sorry, not only for myself, but also for those practitioners in China who have been persecuted during the past 11 years.

Honourable Judges, I hope that you will be fair and uphold justice. What goes around comes around. The CCP persecutes good people, and Heaven will punish it and annihilate it. I hope that you will dissociate yourselves from it and its affiliated organisations, so that you and your family will have a good future.

Longting District Court in Kaifeng City:
Zhao Hong, court director: 86-378-5696351 (Office), 86-13938617536 (Mobile), 86-378-3867903 (Home)
Li Jianyi, district attorney: 86-378-5992001(Office), 86-13903788866(Mobile)
Political and Judicial Directory:
Jia Xiliang, director: 86-378-3855532 (Office), 86-13598751099 (Mobile), 86-378-2957186 (Home)
Wen Songshan, deputy secretary: 86-378-3866029 (Office), 86-13938630006 (Mobile) 86-378-3858866(Home)
Ma Yuxing, deputy secretary and city mayor: 86-378-3855010 (Office), 86-13903788276 (Mobile) 86-378-2265399 (Home)
Su Yujing, deputy secretary: 86-378-3871602 (Office), 86-13723236996 (Mobile), 86-378-3866130 (Home)
Li Hegeng, director, general administration: 86-378-3852215 (Office), 86-13603483966 (Mobile)
Pang Maojin, deputy secretary: 86-378-3876263 (Office), 86-13633788996 (Mobile)
Cao Xinxing, deputy director: 86-378-3859735 (Office), 86-13839968560(Mobile), 86-378-2168996 (Home)
Zao Fanju, deputy director, deputy administration: 86-378-3855452 (Home), 86-13839965933 (Mobile) 86-378-3152694 (Home)
Zhang Kaizeng, deputy director, deputy administration: 86-378-3850786 (Office), 86-13803789865 (Mobile)
Li Hongzhong, director of political division: 86-378-3855542 (Office), 86-13837891853 (Mobile), 86-378-3868956(Home)
Liu Jianhong, director, office management: 86-378-3855530 (Office), 86-13803781155 (Mobile) 86-378-3873433 (Home)

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.org/mh/articles/2010/4/19/221782.html