Mr. Shang Dexing Sentenced to Three Years in Prison for Hiring a Lawyer

On the afternoon of May 3rd, 2010, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Shang Dexing from Qingdao City was arrested and subsequently tried in court. His family engaged two lawyers to defend him. In the process of engaging a lawyer, as well as when the lawyers requested to see Mr. Shang, officials threatened and made trouble for both the family and lawyers. The judge in the Laoshan Court said, “Because you hired a lawyer, I sentence you to three years of imprisonment.”

On the afternoon of May 3rd, 2010, Mr. Shang was seized by officers from the Zhonghanbianfang Police Station in Qingdao City because his seven-year-old grandson gave a Falun Gong DVD to someone. On August 5th, he was tried in the Laoshan Court.

Before he began practising Falun Gong, 65-year-old Mr. Shang suffered from inflammation of the blood vessels, gallstones and other diseases. After practising Falun Gong, these illness vanished, and he became a considerate person, winning the respect of friends and family members.

Mr. Shang's family hired two lawyers to defend him in court. During this process, regime agents threatened them many times and tried to stop the lawyers from representing him.

Under tremendous pressure and being unable to take the mental torture, Mr. Shang's wife, Tian Jinlan, suddenly collapsed in the afternoon on July 26th and became unconscious. Her son sent her to the hospital for emergency treatment. The doctor issued two consecutive critical notices. The next morning, attorney Li and Shang's family took the notices to the court, requesting that Judge Yu Yong permit Mr. Shang to return home to visit his wife. However, their request was turned down.

Before the trial, in order to prevent the lawyers from seeing Mr. Shang, Judge Yu Yong and his secretary, Wu Wangzhi, visited Mr. Shang at the detention centre, dressed in plain clothes. They lied to him, telling him that his family did not want to engage a lawyer, and forced him to agree to defend himself.

Subsequently, on August 2nd, the two officials lied to Mr. Shang's son, claiming that his father had asked to dismiss the lawyers because he wanted to defend himself without any legal help, and they got his family to sign a document.

On August 4th, in the afternoon, the two lawyers arrived at the detention centre. However, officers on duty refused to let them see Mr. Shang. A while later, Yu Yong and Wang Zhiwen also arrived on the scene. Yu Yong said to the lawyers arrogantly: “Shang and his family do not agree to engaging lawyers. They want Shang to defend himself.” Both lawyers insisted on meeting with their client in order to assess the true situation. Fearful that his lies would be exposed, Yu Yong insisted on being present during the meeting.
The lawyers firmly turned down the request. Finally the lawyers conceded to the presence of detention centre guards during the meeting and thus the meeting exposed Yu Yong and Wang Zhiwen's lies.

On August 5th, Mr. Shang was tried in the Laoshan Court. There were many plain-clothes and riot police both inside and outside the courtroom. Before the trial, court police created trouble for Shang's lawyers. Only attorney Han was allowed to enter the courtroom, while attorney Li Subin was blocked from entering. Mr. Shang's son and wife were the only two people allowed to watch the trial. Most of the bystanders in the trial were police officers and 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) agents.

At the start of the trial, Mr. Shang and his lawyers requested that Judge Yu Yong and his secretary, Wu Wangzhi, be excluded from the proceedings because Yu Yong, as the judge, had attempted to deceive the defendant and his lawyer. According to the law, he should not be allowed to preside over the trial. Despite repeated requests, Yu Yong continued to conduct the trial.

Attorney Li and Shang's family members tried to contact the head of the Court. Some plain-clothes police kept video taping them. When Shang's family took pictures of the officers with their cell phones, a dozen police dashed up and tried to snatch the phones. Attorney Li stepped forward to intervene and a police officer pointed a finger at her, “Who are you, show your credentials!” Another officer came up and tried to hit Ms. Li but was stopped by Shang's family. Ms. Li and Shang's family were only allowed to leave after police officers forcefully deleted the photos they took.

On August 21st, after the trial, the court called Ms. Han, informing her that a verdict would be directly meted out on the 25th without a trial. However on the 24th, Yu Yong went to the Dashan Detention Centre and pronounced the verdict. He told Mr. Shang: “I told you not to hire a lawyer, but you insisted on doing so. Initially, I wanted to acquit you as not guilty. However, because you hired a lawyer, you are sentenced to three years in prison.” Mr. Shang asked him: “If I'm innocent, then why did you convict me?” He replied: “It 's because you hired a lawyer, I sentence you to three years of imprisonment.”

After Mr. Shang's trial, his lawyer, Ms. Han, was also intimidated. Staff from the legal department met her and threatened to revoke her license if she continued to pursue the case.

After Mr. Shang's case was reported on the Minghui website, Ms. Han was also threatened by agents from the 610 Office in her home town, Xingtai City in Hebei Province. They told her that the orders came from the Beijing 610 Office at the top and was enforced by officers at one level after another. Additionally, officers from the Qingdao Domestic Security Division coerced her on many occasions and forced her to give up the case.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/10/20/248125.html