(Clearwisdom.net) From 2009 until 2010 the local 610 Office and the Public Security Bureau in Zhenxing District, Dandong City, Liaoning Province illegally sentenced twelve Falun Dafa practitioners. In addition, five practitioners were sentenced to re-education through labor and many others were detained .
Shao Zhangfen and Shao Zhanghua, two sisters, were among the twelve practitioners that were sentenced. On September 6, 2010 they went to Heshengou in Tangchi Township to drop in on relatives. When they were leaving, Wang Baochen, Heshengou Village's Communist Party Secretary, blocked them at the doorway and wouldn't let them leave. He called the Tangchi Town Police Station and had the police take them into custody. Shortly afterwards they were detained, and later subjected to re-education through forced labor. They were later arrested for sentencing, all for the same false charge.
According to the law, generally there are three separate courses of judicial punishment a person can face after being arrested: detention in a lockup center, sent to a forced labor camp, or transferred to the Procuratorate for arrest and sentencing. The local authorities first decided to detain Shao Zhangfen and Shao Zhanghua for fifteen days in a lockup center, then on the sixth day they changed it to re-education through physical labor for one and a half years, and then changed it again after another two days and arrested and sentenced them to prison. Before ten days had passed, they had rendered three different sentences for the same person for the same charge.
Are these different rulings, as stated above, the result of the Chinese Communist Party investigating further and finding new evidence and more facts regarding the so-called "crimes" committed by the two sisters? Let's examine the court hearings, and clarify the circumstances around the interactions between the two parties in the hearings.
The lawyer speaking in defense of the Falun Gong practitioners said, "Regarding the sentencing of my clients, there was only an interval of two days between the two rulings, re-education through labor and sentencing them to prison. Please may I ask, what is the procedure for revoking the ruling of re-education through labor?" The public prosecutor answered, "It came from the Tangchi Police Station." He then gave the order to the lawyer to review. The lawyer questioned, "Does the Tangchi Police Station have the authority to render or change a ruling of whether a person is re-educated through labor or not?" The public prosecutor was at a loss for how to answer. The defense lawyer continued, "The re-education through labor committee of the local government rules whether a person is re-educated through labor or not. How does a police station have the authority and power to send a person to a forced labor camp or remove a person from re-education through labor?”
This is just one example of the arbitrary nature of the Public Security Bureau's application of the law. They use it as a tool to carry out the persecution.
The police station is being allowed to arbitrarily rule that a citizen is re-educated through labor, and can even revoke it later and replace it with something else outside their authority. The re-education through labor center belongs to the Judiciary System, whereas the police station belongs to the Public Security System. The demarcation of their responsibilities and official powers is very clear-cut. However, in the context of persecuting Falun Gong, the public security organ in this case was given extraordinary powers to escalate the persecution without legal basis.
Behind all of this is the 610 Office, the organ that is leading and controlling the violation of law as it pertains to Falun Gong. The 610 Office controls the Public Security Bureau, Procuratorate, and the courts, and renders rulings against innocent Falun Gong practitioners. So even though the defense lawyer made legitimate arguments that went unchallenged by the public prosecutor, the court still sentenced the two sisters heavily. One sister received a seven-year prison sentence and the other a four-year sentence.
So in the space of ten days, three different judicial sentences were rendered. From a certain aspect it reflects the Chinese Communist Party's completely arbitrary and unscrupulous manipulation of the laws and statutes to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. These types of accounts further reveal the Chinese Communist Party's complete disregard of the facts, manipulation of the law, and treacherous intentions in persecuting good people.
