(Minghui.org) A woman was recently sentenced to four years in prison and fined 10,000 yuan over unauthenticated photographic evidence that allegedly depicted items confiscated from her home.
Ms. Qin Aimin, a resident of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on November 19, 2017, along with another local resident, Ms. Yuan Hong, after being reported to the police for talking to people about Falun Gong near a hospital.
Ms. Qin Aimin
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since July 1999.
Daoli District Court tried both women on May 30, 2018. The prosecutor presented several photos of Falun Gong books and compact discs, which the police claimed were confiscated from Ms. Qin's home. But there were no books or discs presented in court, and no witness testified to the photos' authenticity.
Ms. Qin said during the hearing that she was unable to verify if those items were hers since she didn't see the physical items.
When she and her lawyer raised questions about the admissibility of such evidence, the prosecutor said they were lawful. The judge stopped Ms. Qin and her lawyer from talking further.
In addition, the police tore the Falun Gong booklets confiscated from Ms. Qin's home into single pages and then counted each page as a separate piece of evidence.
Ms. Qin was repeatedly interrupted by the judge whenever she mentioned Falun Gong. The judge claimed that the topic of Falun Gong had nothing to do with the case.
When Ms. Qin's lawyer pointed out that the persecution was initiated by former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin without legal basis, the judge threatened to remove him from the courtroom.
The court issued the verdict against Ms. Qin on August 14, accepting all the evidence submitted by the police and rejecting her lawyer's arguments about the lack of legal basis in the persecution.
It was unclear whether or not a verdict has been handed down in Ms. Yuan's case.
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