Older Falun Gong Practitioner Ms. Sun Fuqin from Chicheng County, Hebei Province, Subjected to Trial

Name: Sun Fuqin
Gender: Female
Age: Fifties
Address: Chicheng County, Hebei Province
Occupation: Teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 2nd, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Zhangjiakou Detention Centre
City: Zhangjiakou
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Home ransacked,

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Sun Fuqin is a teacher at the Sanwan Elementary School in Chicheng County. Chicheng County Police Department officers broke into her home on October 14th, 2010. They ransacked it and attempted to arrest her; however, she escaped. At approximately 11:00 a.m. on July 2nd, 2011, she was arrested and taken to the Zhangjiakou Detention Centre. On July 5th, her case was re-categorized from a “criminal detention” to an “arrest”, and then sent to a district court.

Ms. Sun was subjected to a trial at Qiaodong District Criminal Court on September 8th. Her family was given only one day's notice of her trial by the lawyer. Ms. Sun's husband, mother, son and a relative drove to the court that morning. However, the court officers informed them that no one was allowed to attend the court proceedings. Ms. Sun's husband asked, “I am her husband, and this trial is open to the public; which law or regulation disallows people to attend an open court?” The court officers couldn't respond to his question, so replied, “The order came from the Chicheng County Court.” Since the police were queried with rational statements, they had no choice but to report their request to the judge. The judge and lawyer came out together and brought Ms. Sun's mother, husband, and son into the court.

The three of them were seated in the gallery with two policemen standing immediately behind. Ms. Sun was closely monitored by two other policemen. She was not allowed to talk or turn around to look behind her.

While Ms. Sun attempted to defend herself, the judge prevented her from reading her prepared statement, or mention the words “Falun Gong.” Whenever she began to say “Falun Gong,” the judge, Li Xiumei, stopped her by saying, “This is a court. You cannot advocate Falun Gong here.” Since the judge deprived Ms. Sun of her right to defend herself, and constantly threatened her in a loud voice, the court failed to follow the legal process and ended the trial after about one hour. Before Ms. Sun was taken away, her mother took off her jacket and tried to give it to her; however, the judge also prevented this.

A “witness” for the arrests named Xin Shujun was mentioned during the trial; however, the witness's address was fake, since that person's house had been sold seven years before. A private investigation revealed that Xin Shujun was a police vehicle operator. According to regulations related to this case, he didn't qualify as a witness, since he was a police department employee. Therefore, the lawyer issued an objection to the court.

Guo Xianli, secretary, Political and Legal Committee: +86-313-6416988 (Office), +86-313-6319898 (Home), +86-13933991111 (Mobile)
Li Xiumei (female), judge, Criminal Court: +86-13784086928(Mobile)
Liu Yong, deputy judge, Criminal Court: +86-13933750113(Mobile)

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/9/13/246695.html