(Clearwisdom.net)

On September 15, 2004, seven Falun Dafa practitioners (one man and six women) were secretly and illegally tried by the Taian District Court in Taian City, Shandong Province. The seven are Mr. Zhao Weidong, Song Furong, Qu Beibei, Song Qiai, Hou Qingyuan, Lu Xia and Qu Xiaotong.

The courtroom's public gallery was mostly taken up by judicial workers and public prosecutors. Very few outsiders were allowed, and they could only get in after signing their names and submitting to body searches and searches of their belongings. Only a limited number of the practitioners' family members were allowed in, two per practitioner. They were made to sit in a designated area in the back rows. Policemen and plainclothes police patrolled outside the court and forbade outsiders from getting close or entering the court.

The seven Falun Dafa practitioners were severely tortured and abused, and were in critically weak condition. Except for Zhao Weidong and Hou Qingyuan, who could still walk on their own, three of them needed other's help to walk; the remaining two were emaciated, extremely dehydrated and were barely alive, and it was only with the law-enforcement personnel's moving their arms and legs that they were able to walk. When people in and outside of the court saw the practitioners arriving and leaving, they were all shocked and moved, and some couldn't help but sigh with sympathy.

In the court, the practitioners demonstrated great righteousness. Some shouted out loud "Falun Dafa is good" and shook the evil. When the judge asked why they previously gave a statement in which they admitted to making two million copies of Falun Dafa flyers, yet denied doing so when they were brought to court, the defense lawyer replied with a question: "What is the number of two million based on? There's no witness or evidence." The judge was speechless, shocked that anyone would dare to stand up in their own defense.

According to an insider in the Public Security Bureau, the seven Falun Dafa practitioners are currently holding a hunger strike to protest the abuse they're being subjected to. The Public Security Bureau directly intervened in these trials, so the sentences levied were very severe. The seven Falun Dafa practitioners were sentenced to terms of eight to twelve years.

The practitioners were illegally arrested at a truth-clarification material site on June 25 and July 4, 2004 by policemen from Taishan District Public Security Bureau. The Taian District Procuratorate approved the arrest on July 28. Currently, Zhao Weidong (a resident of Changdong County, Shandong Province) and Hou Qingyuan (a resident of Heze City, Shandong Province) are being illegally detained in the Feicheng City Detention Center. Song Furong (a resident of Taian District, Taian City), Qu Beibei (a resident of Junan County, Shandong Province) and Song Qiai (a resident of Taian District) are being illegally detained in the Taian City Detention Center. Lu Xia (a resident of Mengyin County, Shandong Province) and Qu Xiaotong (a resident of Junan County, Shandong Province) are being illegally detained in the Xintai City Detention Center. The case was prosecuted by the Tiaann District Procuratorate (the Procurators are Wang Jianxin and Yi Jianjun) and processed by the Taian District Court.

Posting date: 10/31/2004
Original article date: 10/31/2004
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Translated on 10/17/2004
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/10/9/86181.html

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