(Minghui.org) A woman from Qingdao was sentenced to one and a half years on April 24 for handing out calenders with information about the persecution of Falun Gong.
As Chinese law allows defendants to appeal a verdict by verbally expressing their wish to the original trial court, Ms. Sun Liping immediately told judge Yu Yong that she was determined to fight the unjust sentencing.
By law, the lower court shall make a written record of the verbal appeal request and forward the case to the higher court. Ms. Sun's lawyer however, discovered 25 days later that Yu never recorded his client's verbal request or submitted the case to the higher court.
By then, it was too late for the lawyer to file an appeal directly to the higher court since it was past the 10-day appeal deadline.
Outraged by Yu's legal procedure violation, the lawyer staged a public protest outside Laoshan District Court with a large poster.
The poster reads:How does Judge Yu Yong “issue a verdict without the possibility of beingoverturned”?1. By lying – When he delivered the verdict to my client on April 24, my client verbally expressed her wish to appeal. He did not record the request and later claimed that my client never wished to appeal.1. By violating the law –• He did not give my client the indictment paper. How could we prepare for the defense?!• He did not notify my client of the court date ahead of time.Ms. Sun was arrested on November 17, 2014 and has since remained at Pudong Detention Center. She told her lawyer during a meeting on April 22 this year that she was tried secretly on March 11 at Laoshan District Court.
The lawyer visited her again on April 28 and learned that judge Yu delivered a prison sentence to her four days ago and that she immediately expressed her wish to appeal the verdict.
Ms. Sun's case file never reached the Qingdao Intermediate People's Court though – her lawyer discovered this on May 19 while trying to review her case in preparation for her appeal. It turned out that judge Yu concealed his client's verbal appeal request.
As Ms. Sun missed the deadline to file an appeal, her lawyer had no recourse but stage a public protest against Yu.
Related report:Illegal Actions Taken by Authorities Against Ms. Sun Liping
