Officers from the Dajianglu Police Station in the Hebei District, Tianjin arrested Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Jia Wenguang on January 14th, 2010. The Hebei District Court tried Ms. Jia on April 27th. During the court session, Beijing lawyer Jin Guanghong presented a compelling two-hour defence on behalf of Ms. Jia.
The following are excerpts from Attorney Jin's defence:
"My client Jia Wenguang and other practitioners of Falun Gong are all law-abiding citizens. Their practice of Falun Gong does not disrupt any implementation of the law or administrative regulations, or any public interest or the interest of others; on the contrary, they have gained physical and mental health and raised their moral standards through the practice. Their promotion of Falun Gong to others is also an indirect contribution to society. At the same time, they have become more kind-hearted and more willing to help others. In addition, Falun Gong also encourages and teaches citizens to be good people according to the standards of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance; to speak the truth, do good deeds, and be considerate of others in doing everything. This is beneficial for the betterment and improvement of morality and spirituality throughout the whole of society. Therefore, Ms. Jia Wenguang's conduct is not harmful to society, but rather, it is beneficial to society.
"Falun Gong practitioners are precisely the most stable elements in society, and the government should encourage people's religious belief instead of suppressing it. Moreover, it is a violation of human rights to declare people guilty and punish them because of their religious belief. Now the prosecution has put my client on trial - simply because she distributed a few flyers about Falun Gong on the Jingjiang Bridge - and is trying to sentence her. The court may well be asked: Where is justice? Where is conscience?
"Prosecutors and judges are the last line of defence of social fairness and justice, and the hope of the people. However, for several years our prosecutors and judges have abandoned legal principles and betrayed justice and conscience in the way they treat Falun Gong practitioners. They passed unlawful judgement according to certain people's orders and put countless Falun Gong practitioners on trial and sent them to prison. Do you know how many people have lost their personal freedom, how many families have been broken up, and how many Falun Gong practitioners have suffered brutal torture because of your prosecution and sentencing? Some even lost their lives as a result. How can you be so hard-hearted! We can say without exaggeration that the persecution of Falun Gong is one of the largest incidents of injustice in human history.
"As for the content of Falun Gong flyers, there are two parts; one part is about qigong practice and philosophical thoughts, such as the book of Zhuan Falun; the other part is a criticism of current events and policies, such as information contained in the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. In terms of the former, it is all about qigong cultivation and Chinese traditional philosophies in [the tradition of] Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, with a purpose of passing on cultivation methods and introducing China's traditional culture. As for the latter, the content reflects on history and is critical of current events and policies, and is critical of the Party in power. The purpose is to encourage the authorities to reflect on history and draw lessons from it so that they can truly rule by law, rule for the people and be more careful in administering their power and truly bring benefits to the masses.
"Article 41 in China's Constitution stipulates, 'Citizens of the People's Republic of China have the right to criticize and make suggestions to any state organ or functionary. Citizens have the right to make to relevant state organs complaints and charges against, or exposures of, violation of the law or dereliction of duty by any state organ or functionary; but fabrication or distortion of facts with the intention of libel or frame-up is prohibited.' Therefore, information contained in such publications as the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party exercises the civil right to criticise and make suggestions to state organs defined by the Constitution, and they have in no way disrupted the implementation of laws and regulations. They are within the range of the Constitution and laws.
"Furthermore, let us look at the matter from another angle: Falun Gong practitioners do things this way because they have no alternatives. It is under such circumstances that they are being defamed and persecuted for no reason. Having no channels of expressing themselves freely, they use their own income to make materials to tell people the facts and to expose the lies in the media. Have you seen any Falun Gong practitioners acting violently or in an extreme manner or harming society and others?"
Following lawyer Jin's statements, Ms. Jia also declared in court that the reason she distributed Falun Gong flyers was to let more people know about the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance so that they would be good people. She said, "The reason I did not cooperate with the interrogation and refused to provide a 'confession' was because I did not want to see you [the legal staff] committing crimes." Ms. Jia's peaceful statement stunned the court into absolute silence.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/5/6/222968.html
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