(Clearwisdom.net)

On July 15, 2003, Xushui County Court in Hebei Province secretly held an illegal trial for seventeen Dafa practitioners. These seventeen Dafa practitioners were arrested for the rightful interception of cable TV to broadcast Dafa truth clarifying programs on July 28, 2002 in a city of Hebei Province. They have been illegally detained for ten months now.

Dafa practitioners turned the court into a place for validating Dafa, exposing lies and clarifying the truth. All the people present in the court experienced a very special court trial.

Practitioners defended Dafa in the court, telling people that Dafa promotes the principles of "Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance," and teaches people to be good, which absolutely benefits everyone in our country and society. Dafa is popular in more than 60 countries, being banned in China alone. From Jiang's own personal vendetta, he takes advantage of the government's power to slander Dafa and persecute practitioners.

As soon as practitioner Ms. Niu Mingjie, from Shijiazhuang City, appeared in the court, she proclaimed solemnly, "I won't answer any questions today because it should not be Dafa practitioners who stand here as the defendants."

During the trial, the Chief Justice would interrupt using all kinds of excuses whenever Dafa practitioners talked about the benefits of Dafa or condemned Jiang's persecution.

But Dafa Practitioner Mr. Zhao Weimin, from Shijiazhuang City, made great effort to point out that nobody should be allowed to deprive him of his defendant's right. The Chief Justice could do nothing but let him finish his defense statement.

But many Dafa practitioners' defenses were rudely interrupted without any reason.

Dafa practitioner Ms Xie Zhanfen had only read her speech half way through when the bailiff in the court hurriedly grabbed away her speech paper and tore it into pieces.

Mr. Ma Zhenjun, in his fifties, was pulled back to his seat when he talked about how he started to be a good person because of practicing Falun Gong, and so on and so forth.

In order to deceive the public and media, the court appointed seventeen lawyers for the seventeen practitioners. When some of the appointed lawyers "defended" practitioners, they even started to say defaming words against Dafa. The Dafa practitioners then stopped them immediately from "defending" them any further.

Some of the appointed lawyers pointed out that there are no formal legal resolutions or laws regarding the nature of Falun Gong that have been published so far. Then the judge asked the public prosecutor if he could show him the laws regarding the nature of Falun Gong. The public prosecutor answered, "There's nothing." It was obvious at that point that all the prosecutions and sentences that have been dealt against Dafa practitioners around the country are illegal and without any foundation.

When the court asked practitioner Li Feng and Xie Shuhen to identify the four truth clarifying video CDs, they answered, "We cannot recognize them from the surface." They requested to play the CDs on the spot. Other practitioners also strongly demanded the court to play the CDs right away to clarify the truth, since the prosecution accused practitioners regarding the contents of the CDs being "anti-government." Eventually they had to agree to do that. At that time, a dozen plain-clothes agents were called into the court where there were more than ten bailiffs already present.

While the Dafa video CDs were playing on a 29-in. color TV set, people in the audience, especially the seventeen appointed lawyers for the defendants, were all attentively watching the screen. But when the CD started to show titles like "The Truth of the Self-Immolation" and "Dafa Spreading Around the World," the Chief of the Court started to shout nervously, "Stop! Stop!" They were so afraid that people would know the truth about Falun Gong.

Many practitioners also accused Xushui Police Department police agents of abusing Dafa practitioners with torture. These agents would handcuff practitioners into a chair, apply high voltage by a manual generator, beat practitioners using electric batons and wooden sticks, etc., which would make people prefer to die rather than to go on living. Many Dafa practitioners had to be carried to the jailhouse due to the severity of the beatings.

When practitioners were asked to sign the court memo, they refused. Ms. Zhang Yanqing and Ms. Xie Xiugai were beaten for their refusals. Practitioner Han Weixin said, "The trial is not fair; I will not sign." Ms. Niu Mingjie answered, "Right from the very beginning, I refused to answer any questions, let alone to sign anything now!"

In the end when Dafa practitioners still had things to clarify, the judge adjourned the illegal trial in a hurry.

Currently, the seventeen Dafa practitioners are still detained in Xushui Jailhouse.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2003/9/28/58067.html