AP: Falun Gong [practitioners] convicted in Hong Kong trial says fine money should be returned

Sun Aug 25,11:42 PM ET

HONG KONG - A Falun Gong [practitioners] convicted in Hong Kong's first criminal case against members of the meditation group said Monday the mystery person who paid the defendants' fines should get an immediate refund.

'We didn't pay,' said Lu Jie, who was convicted earlier this month of various offenses during a protest March 14 outside the Chinese government liaison office here.

'We don't know who paid for us, but we don't accept it because we didn't do anything wrong at all,' Lu said by telephone. 'It's not a normal trial. It's a political prosecution.'

After Magistrate Symon Wong convicted the 16 Falun Gong [practitioners], including four Swiss, one New Zealander and 11 Hong Kong people, he imposed fines totaling 29,300 Hong Kong dollars (U.S. dlrs 3,756). No one was ordered to jail.

The Falun Gong [practitioners] are appealing the verdicts and said they would not pay their fines, because they viewed that as an effective admission of guilt.

When the defendants missed the deadline to pay up, court officials began preparing arrest warrants, and Falun Gong said an unknown person then stepped forward and paid all the fines.

The Hong Kong Judiciary has confirmed that a woman paid, but officials also do not know her identity.

Falun Gong spokesman Kan Hung-cheung has speculated it could be a supporter of the group who wanted to spare the defendants any more trouble.

Lu said the Falun Gong [practitioners] were planning to go to the courthouse to repeat their contention that their arrests and trial were improper, and to say the fine money should be returned.

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