Mr. Zheng Deming's Self-Defence in Court

Name: Zheng Deming
Gender: Male
Age: 66
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Retired from Hefei City Third Steel Factory
Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 24th, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Hefei City Second Detention Centre
City: Hefei
Province: Anhui
Persecution Suffered: Forced labour, brainwashing, imprisonment, home ransacking, interrogation, detention

Mr. Zheng Deming was first arrested on New Year's Day in 2000, as he practised the Falun Gong exercises in a park. He was sentenced to three years in prison. He was again sentenced, this time to seven years in prison, from 2002 to 2009, and was incarcerated in the Chaohu City Prison. He was arrested on June 24th, 2011, by officers from the Haozhou Street Police Station and the Luyang District 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and Domestic Security Team, and detained in Hefei City Second Detention Centre. The Luyang District Court tried him on December 13th, without notifying his family. When he arrived in the courtroom, Mr. Zheng shouted repeatedly, “Falun Gong is great!”

Having learned of his trial from other sources, Mr. Zheng's family and friends arrived at the courthouse early. They explained to the police that Mr. Zheng was innocent and should not be handcuffed.

The prosecutor charged him based on Article 300. Mr. Zhen pointed out that Article 300 does not mention Falun Gong, and asked that the prosecutor read the entire Article 300 in court.

The prosecutor slandered Falun Gong. Mr. Zheng said, "Where in the law does it say that Falun Gong is a 'cult?' The People's Congress Resolution passed on October 30th, 1999, and never mentioned Falun Gong. Falun Gong was not included in the 14 cults the Public Safety Ministry announced in 2005. and only Jiang Zemin, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] and the People's Daily have said that Falun Gong is a cult, which is not true according to the law."

The prosecutor said that Mr. Zheng was undermining the implementation of the law. Mr. Zheng said, “You must have facts to back up your accusation.”

The prosecutor said that Mr. Zheng had committed crimes multiple times. Mr. Zheng said, “I am telling you with full confidence that I have not committed any crimes. First you sentenced me to three years in prison, simply because I did the Falun Gong exercises in the park. You tried to prevent me from exercising—that is how you have persecuted me.” The judge asked, “What evidence can you provide to prove we that persecuted you? Mr. Zheng held up his cuffed hands and said, “This is evidence.” He continued, “The second time you imprisoned me to seven years, because I tapped into the TV system to spread the truth of the Tiananmen self-immolation stunt¹. There is a documentary film about that incident called False Fire, which the United Nations has collected as evidence on how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) slanders Falun Gong. This time, you ransacked my home and arrested me. All the materials in my home are used to explain the facts of Falun Gong and expose the persecution. I downloaded and copied them from the Internet. The information contained in these materials does not interfere with the social order. It is to help people to wake up to the truth.”

As Mr. Zheng defended himself, the judge and the prosecutor were both silent. The trial lasted about an hour. No sentence was announced before the trial was adjourned.

Related report: “After Ten Years of Imprisonment, Mr. Zheng Deming Illegally Tried Again” (http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2011/12/23/130294.html)

Note

1. The "Tiananmen Self-Immolation" an incident on Tiananmen Square in January 2001 whereby four people set themselves alight and the Chinese Communist claimed they were Falun Gong practitioners, yet there was video evidence to strongly disprove this claim.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/12/18/250699.html