Decorated Police Officer Sentenced to Four Years in Prison for Practising Falun Gong

On April 28th, 2010, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Lu Zhiyong, once named the "Best Police Officer" of Heishui County, Sichuan Province, was sentenced to four years in prison after being detained for more than two months. The Heishui County Court announced the sentence without the presence of a lawyer and without any evidence, or legal basis.

The court rejected all of the legal arguments that Mr. Lu's lawyer made in the trial. Other than Mr. Lu and his lawyer, the deputy director of the court, Lan Yong, judge of the Criminal Court, Tan Xiaohong, Mr. Lu Zhiyong's wife, and one other woman attended the trial.

After the trial, Lu Zhiyong filed an appeal. Another trial was planned for May 20th at the Heishui County Court. Judges from Aba District will come to Heishui County to preside over the trial.

Arrested and Beaten after Visiting His Mother

On September 19th, 2009, Lu Zhiyong visited his mother in Dujiangyan City. On his way home, he was arrested in Xinjin County by policemen from Heishui County who had been following him. Lu Zhiyong was so seriously beaten that he passed out. He regained consciousness after two days.

Lu Zhiyong was a teacher and a pharmacist. After that, he became a policeman for forest reserve areas. His father was the director of a hospital and his mother was a medical doctor. Lu Zhiyong had many diseases when he was young, but after practising Falun Gong, all of his diseases disappeared. He felt the beauty of Falun Gong and followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. As a result of his good nature he was granted the title of the "Best Police Officer."

After the persecution began on July 20th, 1999, Lu Zhiyong was persecuted relentlessly. In June 2001, he was sentenced to one and a half years in a forced labour camp. In 2005, both Lu Zhiyong and his wife were sentenced to three years in forced labour camps. In the Xinhua Forced Labour Camp, Lu Zhiyong was persecuted with drugs and brutal torture methods. The water that he drank and the food that he ate and was forcibly fed contained unknown drugs. In February 2008, Mr. Lu was released by the Xinhua Forced Labour Camp when he was on the verge of death.

Trial

On January 12th, 2010, the Procuratorate of Heishui County filed charges against Lu Zhiyong. On the morning of February 1st, the Heishui County Court tried Mr. Lu. About two dozen people arrived at the court, including his mother and wife. The court was heavily guarded. All of the policemen, with the exception of bailiffs, carried guns. The reason for charging Lu Zhiyong was that the Heishui County Post Office found that the court was receiving more than the normal amount of mail. The post office stopped the mail delivery to the court and checked the contents of the mail and some letters exposing the persecution of Falun Gong were found. The Procuratorate thought that the letters were sent by Lu Zhiyong and as a result, Mr. Lu was arrested and brought to trial.

Mr. Lu Zhiyong graduated from a politics and law college in Chengdu City. He mentioned in the court that the behaviour of the post office was against the Postal Law and against the Constitution, in which the right to freely send letters was stipulated.

In the court, two righteous lawyers, one from Beijing and the other one from Chengdu, defended Mr. Lu. Based on the perspective of religious freedom, they pointed out, "Mr. Lu Zhiyong has the freedoms of religion and speech, which are stipulated in the Constitution. He must not be punished for his religion, thoughts, speech, or the ideas that he advocated. In addition, any law or power should not be used to judge a religion or punish its followers." Therefore, the lawyers stated that charging Lu Zhiyong with a crime is completely against the Constitution. They said that doing so was a serious error and cannot be used as the foundation of a trial.

The lawyers also pointed out that the "evidence" provided by the Procuratorate was either collected against the law or could not demonstrate a direct connection between the facts and what the prosecutors claimed. Therefore, all of the evidence was suspect and the charges against Lu Zhiyong actually could not be legally established.

Due to lack of evidence, the Procuratorate was speechless and could not respond to the lawyers' arguments. The judge, Lan Yong, even reminded the Procuratorate about other evidence they had. The court system was even breaking the law in front of the general public!

Lu Zhiyong and His Family Members Monitored

After the trial, Lu Zhiyong moved to Dujiangyan City where he and his family members were tightly monitored. His mother was stalked while shopping at a grocery market. She tried to persuade those people not to bother her but they refused to listen to her. There were several people monitoring Lu Zhiyong. In the meantime, Lu Zhiyong's wife still lived in Heishi County. She was ordered to report to the Political and Legal Committee whenever she left there.

After Lu Zhiyong appealed, someone from the legal system tried to persuade his family members to drop the appeal. The person claimed that he knew that the trial was completely illegal, however, the results had already been decided by the Aba District Court, the Procuratorate and the Political and Legal Committee and therefore, it was useless to appeal.

Responsible people:

Trial Judge: Lan Yong (Deputy Director of Heishui County Court)

Criminal Court Director, Heishui County Court: Tan Xiaohong

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/5/19/223956.html