610 Office Officials Interfere with the Judicial Process as Mr. Huang Liqiao Sues Tianjin Pipe Corporation

Officers from the Dahutong Police Station in Hongqiao District and the security department of Tianjin Pipe Corporation forcibly removed Mr. Huang from his workplace and took him to the Hongqiao District Police Department on April 20th, 2008. He was sentenced to two years in the Shuangkou Forced Labour Camp without any legal proceedings taking place.

In July 2008, officials from Tianjin Pipe Corporation went to the labour camp three times to order Mr. Huang to resign from his job. Mr. Huang refused. On August 19th, 2008, personnel from the Corporation broke into his parents’ home and forced his younger brother to sign the termination of Mr. Huang's contract.

Mr. Huang returned home on April 19th, 2010 and requested his work contract be renewed. The Arbitration Committee for Labour Disputes in Dongli District didn't accept the case, as the time limit had expired. They did however suggest that he bring a lawsuit to the court within 15 days.

Mr. Huang filed a lawsuit against Tianjin Pipe Corporation at the Dongli Court. Although the court accepted the case on June 21st, 2010, they kept delaying the proceedings. When Mr. Huang first went to the court and filed the case against Tianjin Pipe Corporation, a member of the court staff, Sun Zhaomin, told him to delete the words "Falun Gong" from his statement. Sun later said, “I would not have registered the case if I had known it was so complicated.” As soon as Falun Gong was mentioned during the hearing, Judge Sun Zhaomin became visibly nervous and said, “This case is too sensitive. I cannot take responsibility for the decision. I need to keep my job.” Then Sun repeatedly demanded that Mr. Huang delete the words "Falun Gong" from his statement and threatened not to open the court session if he did not do so. After Mr. Huang refused, Sun went to see officials from Mr. Huang’s neighborhood committee and asked them to put pressure on him to stop the lawsuit.

A court hearing was finally set for 2:00 p.m. on June 13th, 2011. But before the hearing began, a notice was put on the gate which stated that there would be no business that day due to an emergency conference. All the gates to the courthouse were closed and people were prohibited from entering. Many plainclothes officers were around the courthouse, and from time to time, they took pictures of people in the vicinity using their mobile phones.

Before the hearing began, the head of the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) spoke with officials from Tianjin Pipe Corporation for quite a long time. The court session was delayed until 2:30 p.m., and Judge Sun Zhaomin only allowed Mr. Huang and his wife to enter the court. Presiding judge She Guodong ordered the guards to thoroughly search Mr. Huang and his wife as they went through the security checkpoint.

The court session was strictly monitored by personnel from the 610 Office, and during the hearing She Guodong turned to the head of the 610 Office and told him, “Please rest assured, we have prepared in advance for this Falun Gong case.” The hearing was closed shortly after.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/6/24/242922.html