The Jinzhou City People’s Court in Liaoning Province has handed a hefty 13 year imprisonment on August 27 to Falun Gong practitioner Liu Mei Fong, and 6 years to Qu Chenyei, Huang Chen and Zhang Xiulan on alleged charges of “use of evil cult organization to undermine the enforcement of State laws”. Defence lawyers have argued that the materials relied on by investigators are fabricated with totally unfounded evidence and the sentence is a miscarriage of justice which tramples on the civil rights of residents. Defence also argued the process of extracting confessions used against the accused are hair-raising and constitute serious criminal conduct.
Defence Lawyer Jiang Tian Yiu says the offence charged against the 4 defendants are not made out at all. In one instance, the prosecution alleged Liu Mei Fong provided $60,000 Yuan to Qu Chen Yei for him to purchase equipment to broadcast Falun Gong Information. In actual fact Liu did not know Qu and never had any savings above $20,000, let alone $60,000 to give away. Lawyer Jiang says the evidence presented by the prosecution is ridiculous as they were full of holes which were pointed out one by one by the defence. He pointed out the materials written by the prosecution were fabricated and confessions given by the accused were extracted under terrifying interrogation methods and cannot be relied on as evidence.
Jiang also pointed out that the maximum penalty of any single offence is 15 years, and Liu Meifong was handed a heavy sentence of 13 years. He says the defendant’s belief in Falun Gong does not constitute a crime and the Judge was left speechless after he questioned which provision in Chinese law provides that Falun Gong is an evil cult.
Jiang says after the sentence Liu comforted him saying never to give up hope and he has great respect for the characters of these cultivators. He said Liu has been sentenced to 13 years imprisonment simply for refusing to give up her belief and has demonstrated extreme tolerance towards the prosecution and their abusers.
Another defence lawyer Tang Jitian says the court outcome goes completely against the ideals of the rule of law and basic rights which are purported to be protected. He says the result is totally against facts and without legal basis and is purely a exhibition of pressure exertion.
Defence lawyer Li Renbing says the defendants will appeal the decision and they will continue to act for them.
According to Minghui website, Liu Meifong, Zhang Xiulan and Hwang Chen from Jingzhou in Liaoning Province were taken from their homes after police illegally raided their house on February 25 and Qu Chenyei from Shangdong was kidnapped on the same day by the Jingzhou Bureau of Public Security. They were detained for close to 6 months after local officials instituted prosecution against them based on fabricated evidence.

The above news is brought to you by Lu Fang, Wen Hong and Chris Thomas for Inside China Today on SOH Radio Network.