(Clearwisdom.net) From 1:30 to 4:20 p.m. on October 21, 2008, Shanghai Xuhui District Court held trials for Mr. Liu Peng, Ms. Zhang Xumei, and Ms. Zheng Yan. Mr. Liu's lawyer defended him. This is the first time the lawyer defended Falun Gong practitioners in the Shanghai area.

Both Mr. Liu Peng and his wife, Ms. Zhang Xumei, earned Master's degrees from East China Normal University. Their child is only eight years old. In the past eight years, they have been harassed, brainwashed with torture, arrested, sent to forced labor camps, and subjected to other forms of persecution by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) personnel time and again. Mr. Liu was imprisoned in a forced labor camp twice and inhumanly tortured. On the morning of Lantern Festival Day in 2008, the police arrested Ms. Zhang Xumei on her way to work. The police stole her keys, ransacked her home, and arrested her husband. During her detention, she was brutally tortured until she signed a confession. She was not allowed to sleep for three days and nights. She was released after being detained for a month.

At around 7 a.m. on August 1, Ms. Zhang was again arrested while on her way to work.

The Shanghai authorities were afraid of people protesting the CCP persecution of Falun Gong, so they dispatched police to set up barriers and checkpoints outside the courthouse. There were more than 30 uniformed police officers in the vicinity of the courtroom. In addition, a lot of plainclothes officers walked around keeping an eye on pedestrians and vehicles. There were even plainclothes officers sitting inside teahouses at the corner. One insider said, "There are more than 80 police officers in the area, patrolling on foot and in vehicles."

A map of the area around the courthouse and a schematic diagram of deployed police cars and officers when the trials were on.

The following are pictures that were taken on the scene. Besides police cars, there were officers in two vehicles that were well-equipped with photography equipment on the roofs patrolling the area.

Police patrolling the corners of Yishan and Nandang Roads across from the courthouse.

Police car across from the courthouse and an officer at the main entrance with three plainclothes officers (two males and one female) talking with him.

Police patrolling back and forth along Nandang and Yishan Roads.

A police car parked in the middle of an intersection near the courthouse for more than two hours with one or two officers in the car. The traffic police at the intersection did not leave in the afternoon.

Two police cars parked at the rear entrance of the courthouse. There were two officers in each car

Related article: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/11/6/102033.html

October 24, 2008