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Zhao Weidong and Six Other Practitioners Secretly Tried in Taian City, Shandong Province
(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.
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