Thirteen Dafa Practitioners in Changchun City Wrongfully Sentenced to 10-15 Years of Prison; Lawyers Prohibited From Entering "Not Guilty" Plea for Them

By a practitioner in China

June 21, 2002

(Clearwisdom.net)

According to reliable sources,13 Dafa practitioners received heavy sentencing during illegally conducted court sessions in Nanguan Court in Changchun City, Jilin Province. Among them Yang Guang and Liu Zhe (female) were sentenced to 15 years in prison. Zhang Chunyu and Wang Juncheng were sentenced to 14 years. Wang Hongge and Yang Feng received a 13-year sentence. Zhang Yufeng (female), Zheng Weidong, Lu Yan, Bai Ye and Liu Shuang received 12 years. Sun Changde received 11 years. Zhang Shuqian was sentenced to 10 years in prison. All 13 Dafa practitioners jointly appealed the illegally handed down sentence, but their appeal was rejected without any justification. Ten male Dafa practitioners were sent to the Second Prison of Jilin Province, which is located in Jilin City. During the first two months of their long sentences, all were subjected to intense, two month long forced brainwashing sessions. The prison prohibited visits by relatives as well as any family support of clothing or money. The prison completely sealed off all contact and censored all news. We have absolutely no knowledge of the current situation of these 10 male Dafa practitioners. There was no reliable information either regarding the other three female Dafa practitioners. We ask all Dafa practitioners to pay close attention to this incident. Let's send forth righteous thoughts together, completely eradicate the persecution against Dafa disciples being carried out by the Second Prison of Jilin Province.

Furthermore, the Changchun City government held a citywide conference with all lawyers and specifically prohibited them from defending Falun Gong practitioners. If anyone attempted to defend the practitioners as innocent, they were threatened with disbarment. During the court session on the day of sentencing, all lawyers merely acted accordingly and uttered a few statements devoid of any real meaning. All 13 Dafa practitioners had to defend themselves and claimed to be innocent of the charges. When they cried out "Falun Dafa is good; Falun Dafa is righteous; Establish Teacher's innocence," their voices frightened the evil hooligans. The police started beating the Dafa practitioners right in the court. All 13 Dafa practitioners did not take the beating passively nor did they cooperate. They continued saying their righteous words without physically fighting back. The police became more savage in their beatings. They broke Dafa disciple Lu Yan's right leg in the courtroom. When the non-practitioner wife of Yang Feng and the practitioner wife of Yang Guang questioned why Dafa practitioners were treated so brutally by the police, they themselves were hauled outside and were beaten up. They were also illegally detained. The whole episode was a complete travesty of justice.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2002/6/22/32195.html

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