(Minghui.org) A judge from the District Court of Zhenxing in Dandong City, Liaoning Province openly admitted that he would sentence Liu Pintong and other three practitioners to jail and that the order came from his superiors.

On July 27, 2012, the District Court of Zhenxing held a trial against Falun Gong practitioners Liu Pintong, Zhang Jing and Zhang Yinghong. Prior to the trial, the public security personnel of the Zhenxing District colluded with each other to conceal the fact that they had attempted to extort confessions by torture and used various means to block and prevent practitioners from hiring a lawyer to defend themselves. After the trial, the court didn't immediately announce the results. However, later, Tao Zhanhua, president of the court, stated: “We have to sentence Liu Pintong.” He said the order was from above and that he was only executing it.

The details of the story are as follows:

On March 3, 2012, practitioners Zhang Yinghong, Liu Pintong and Zhang Jing were arrested by police officers from Bianfang Police Station of East Harbor City as they were informing local residents about the persecution. Subsequently, their houses were ransacked, and they were subjected to extortion and forced confessions by torture. Their families and relatives were also subject to forced confessions by torture and their property was taken away. The Bianfang Police Station of Zhenxing, the Bianfang Police Station of Xingang, and the Bianfang Police Station of Qianyang were involved in these criminal acts.

On April 9, 2012, under the manipulation of the District Procurator of Zhenxing, Lu Bing, police officer from the Border Economic Zone Branch Station of the Dandong Public Security Bureau, and Wang Zhanquan, deputy director of the Bienfang Police Station in Qianyang, brought charges against Liu Pintong, Zhang Yinghong, and Zhang Jing. The District Procurator conspired with Lu and Wang and fabricated evidence and charges against the three practitioners.

Before the trial, Liu Pintong and Zhang Jing's family hired a lawyer from Beijing to defend them. After the lawyer reviewed all documents, and investigated all facts, he found that the accusations and charges made by the public security bureau, the procurator and the court were all forged, or imposed. The accusations and charges had no legal basis or evidence. Additionally, the lawyer also received an accusation letter from Liu Pintong that exposed the Dandong police officers' use of torture to extort confessions. Accordingly, before the trial, the lawyer filed an application to exclude the illegally-obtained evidence by the District Procurator. However, the District Court of Zhenxing refused to verify the facts, and forcibly held the trial on July 27. The court didn't announce the result that day, but said another trial would be held soon.

On August 6, 2012, Liu Pintong's family rushed to the District Court of Zhenxing from Fushun City. They asked the president and the court judge (Tao Zhanhua) to acquit Liu Pintong. Tao evaded the responsibility, saying he had a meeting to attend and couldn't talk to them. He later spent a few minutes with Liu Pintong's family on the phone and said: “I have to sentence Liu Pintong. This is an order from above. I am just carrying it out.”