(Clearwisdom.net) On November 30, 2006, when the Subordinate Court in Singapore was going to issue a verdict in the case of two Falun Gong practitioners, who protested in front of the Chinese Consulate, practitioners found that the prosecutor, Xia Hongjun, had two 8 by 10 (A4-size) black-and-white photos of Jiang Zemin on his desk. One of them was taken with President Bush and his wife, and the other one was Jiang's portrait. Both photos were printed out from a website.
Why did a court prosecutor in a democratic country have photos of Jiang Zemin inside the courtroom? A possible reason is that in a trial held two days ago, Mr. Erh Boon Tiong, the defendant, mentioned that President Bush has condemned the persecution against Falun Gong, so the prosecutor brought the photo as supporting evidence.
The strange thing is that the prosecutor put a wooden toad the size of a fist on top of the photos and it made strange noise every three to five minutes.
Practitioners kindly told the prosecutor that the photos and the toad are very bad and he should throw them away for his own good. The prosecutor said that they are his personal belongings and that "the food of one person is a drug for another person." He insisted on putting these things on his desk during the trial.
In the afternoon, the judge refused to hear any evidence for the defense and declared the defendants guilty. Ms. Ng Chye Huay was fined 1,500 Singapore dollars or 15 days in prison if the fine was not paid. Mr. Erh Boon Tiong was fined 1,000 Singapore dollars or ten days in prison. The two defendants would not accept it as a fair trial and refused to pay the fines. They pleaded to appeal, but the judge ruled that the appeals could only be made after the prison terms were completed. Denied their right to appeal, Ms. Ng and Mr. Erh were taken away by police immediately. Mr. Erh is serving his term in Queenstown Jail and Ms. Ng is in Changi Women's Jail.
Category: April 25 Events
