On January 28, the People's Court of the Dong-cheng District put 22practitioners on trial in three different halls.
Xiao-bin Li and Xiao-mei Li, who were the former owners of the Di-tan Cultural Bookstore, were tried in the first hall. Five practitioners who had unfurled banners of Falun Dafa in front of the national flag were tried in the second hall. Another 15 practitioners were put on trial in the third hall.
On October 27 1999, the day before the People's Daily published an article defaming Falun Gong as an "evil religion", 17 practitioners climbed up the rostrum of Tiananmen and unfurled banners of Falun Dafa. Two of them were escorted back to their hometowns waiting for sentence. The other 15 practitioners were put on trial in Beijing. Among these 15practitioners, 2 of them pleaded "guilty" due to the overwhelming pressures from the government. But the other 13 practitioners all pleaded innocent righteously and made strong statements to defend Falun Dafa. These 17 practitioners did not know each other before. They decided on their action on the morning of October 27. During the whole trial, these 13 practitioners were all at ease.
During the detention, Tong Chu had been on hunger strike for 9 days to defend her right of studying and practicing Falun Dafa. Ling Li and Hong Yao were once handcuffed and hang up on the door. Hong Yao lost her consciousness very soon. Then the handcuffs opened suddenly, and Hong Yao fell down to the ground. All her cellmates cried and rushed over to help her.
During the defense, a practitioner said, "I had suffered life-threatening illness when I was only 30 years old. It was Falun Dafa that saved me. It was Falun Dafa that taught me how to become a good person and changed a selfish me to an unselfish person ..." The prosecutors, the judge, the lawyers, and people auditing the trial were all moved.
These 15 practitioners were sentenced to 4 months to 2 years in jail.18 practitioners from Beijing got arrested for trying to audit the trial.
Category: Accounts of Persecution
