(Clearwisdom.net) On August 21, 2008, in Mei County, Guangdong Province, the local state-run county court held a trial for Mr. Zhu Xiansheng, a Falun Dafa practitioner.

When his trial date was announced, over thirty of his relatives and more than ten other people showed up to support him.

Mr. Zhu requested that his wife Ms. Li Xiufang and his daughter act as his defense attorneys and enter a plea of not guilty on his behalf.

The 610 Office and the court personnel originally planned to fill the courtroom seats with firemen and their own office personnel, in an effort to show that they were holding a "fair and open trial." However, they were quite surprised to see that out of 100 available seats, 600f them were occupied by friends and family of Mr. Zhu.

According to the the law, a presiding judge must introduce the names of all individuals who are party to a lawsuit. But in Mr. Zhu's case, they did not follow this procedure.

During the trial, the defense attorney asked Mr. Zhu if he was treated unfairly during his illegal imprisonment and if the police tortured him in order to extract a confession for a crime he did not commit. Mr. Zhu answered in the affirmative.

Mr. Zhu's attorney mentioned to the court that Mr. Zhu was emaciated after serving only about three months in prison. In addition, the attorney gave a detailed account of the persecution of Falun Gong.

In the end, Mr. Zhu's attorney asked the court to release Mr. Zhu and to return his illegally confiscated computer, printer, cash, etc. In light of the evidence that was presented to the court, the court personnel and the Procuratorate had no counter-arguments to offer. The court adjourned without a verdict.