Prosecutor: We now call Ms. Jin Youming.
Ms. Jin is sworn in.
Prosecutor: Ms. Jin, please tell us about the conditions that surrounded the death of your mother.
Jin: At the beginning of the persecution after July 20, 1999, the media was broadcasting anti-Falun Gong content 24 hours a day, everyday. It was always "evil cult this, evil cult that... " trying to find ways to make Falun Gong look bad. They kept bringing up a list of about 1400 people who had allegedly died because they practiced Falun Gong. My mother's name was Ma Jinxiu and she was on that list.
Before she began practising Falun Gong, my Mom was already critically ill. As far back as when I was in high school, she had already begged relatives to take care of my two sisters and me in case she died. She had suffered from advanced diabetes for more than 10 years and had had a major stroke in 1994 and another one in 1995. She had to take more than 30 pills several times day. Her face was ashen and it had become deformed from the strokes -- one of her eyebrows was much higher than the other one and a corner of her mouth sloped downward. She would get tired just walking a few blocks and her doctors told her she would probably die if she had another stroke. Then she learned Falun Gong on her own in 1996, and her health greatly improved. She no longer needed to take any medication. As she continued to practise the Falun Gong exercises, read the Falun Gong books, and tried to improve her moral character, she began to feel better than she had for years. Her deformed face actually returned to normal! The doctors had said that was impossible! Her eyes began to sparkle. She was able to walk much faster than before, she could now do housework, and her complexion went from grayish to fair. Her body felt light, and all the symptoms associated with her diabetes disappeared. Many of our relatives, friends, and neighbours witnessed the changes in her.
In the middle of 1997, my Mom began to experience discomfort in her body. We took her to the hospital the same day. They told us she was critically ill and might die soon. She remained hospitalised and died several months later. Her doctors said she died from a brain aneurysm.
Later on I heard that Jiang and the "610" Office had come up with 1400 cases where people had supposedly died from practising Falun Gong and my Mom was included as one of those cases. My Mom had clearly died from a brain aneurysm. While she was hospitalised, she received a great deal of medical attention. She took all the medications her doctors prescribed and had many injections, but unfortunately she still passed away. So why not say she died from receiving treatment at the hospital? How could the authorities say that my Mom died from practising Falun Gong just because she had practised Falun Gong at one time. My Mom's case is just one of the many lies Jiang has fabricated. How evil those lies are! They've made people associate "Truthfulness Compassion Forbearance," the most beautiful things in the world, with murder and people getting hurt. They've made people turn their backs on virtue. Jiang should be tried for ruining the souls of the Chinese people.
Prosecutor: Thank you. I have no further questions.
Judge: Defense?
Defense Attorney: Thank you your honour. Mrs. Jin, you bring up this case of your mother. But hers is just one of 1400, maybe many more where people got hurt practising Falun Gong. Isn't that possible, my dear? Isn't it true that Falun Gong has driven people to do crazy things? To do criminal things?
Prosecutor: Objection! Leading the witness!
Judge: Overruled.
Jin: Well, I know there was a case of a murderer called Fu Yibin who killed a bunch of people in his family. They said on TV that he committed the crime because he practised Falun Gong. But I happen to know one of his neighbours who said Fu Yibin had never practised Falun Gong or read the books in his life. And Fu's wife even told a neighbour she thought it was weird when the CCTV reporter kept making her say on camera that Fu had practised Falun Gong when he had never been the spiritual or healthy Gong-practising type at all.
Defense Attorney: Move to strike from the record. Hearsay.
Judge: Overruled.
Defense Attorney: Wouldn't you say, my dear, that people would have to be just a little bit crazy to set themselves on fire, like those people on Tiananmen Square, those Falun Gong practitioners?
Jin: I don't know about crazy, but I think they'd have to be pretty desperate. The self-immolation incident you're talking about didn't involve Falun Gong practitioners, so I can only guess that whoever did it was driven to it by despair.
Defense Attorney: Despair brought on by their practise of Falun Gong?
Jin: Well, I don't think they were practitioners at all. If they were, I think practitioners in their area would at least have recognised them. But no one knows who they were. Anyway, I live in the US, and there was an article in the Washington Post where a reporter went to investigate the background of one of the people. And none of her neighbours had ever seen her practise Falun Gong or talk about it or anything. There are just too many inconsistencies in the case. I think it may have been staged by Jiang and the "610" Office to frame practitioners and to fool the people of China.
Defense Attorney: That's a very serious accusation. Can you prove this?
Jin: I have a videotape here with me, and its quite clear from the tape that the participants were acting out this incident like they were on stage.
Defense Attorney: I asked for a simple yes or no reply to my question. Move to strike from the record.
Judge: What is it that you have with you?
Jin: It's a videotape that runs through the events of the self-immolation and points out some of the inconsistencies.
Attorney for the Defense: Your Honour, this videotape was not submitted as evidence prior, your Honour. Move to strike it from the record.
Prosecutor: May I move to enter this tape as evidence for the prosecution.
Judge: Permission granted.
[they play the tape]
Judge: What are we watching here?
Jin: This is a broadcast from China's state-run television station, CCTV. That's Liu Chunling, a young woman who reportedly burned herself to death. You can see clearly in this footage that she's being struck on the back of her head by a heavy object and she's falling to the ground. It looks like the object was thrown by a man in a police uniform behind her... That's Wang, Jindong, sitting on the ground shouting strange words. See how he's charred all over his body and face, but look at his hair -- it's still there and it's not burned. Normally a person's hair is one of the most flammable parts of his body. Look at the green plastic Sprite bottle on his legs. It's intact and unburned, too, but it was supposed to have contained gasoline. And there -- there's a policeman holding a fire blanket standing by his side posing in a leisurely fashion, as though there's a camera right in front of them.
Defense Attorney: Speculation. Move to strike.
Judge: Please do not interrupt the testimony, Counsel. Motion denied.
Jin: This part's interesting. It's only a few miles from Tiananmen Square to the hospital, but the ambulance arrived at the hospital 2 hours and 10 minutes after it left the Square! Makes you wonder what happened during that time, considering this was supposed to have been an urgent rescue. Oh, and this part -- four days later, it was shown on TV that the little girl who lost her mother in the tragedy was interviewed by a CCTV reporter. This young girl, who was completely covered with thick bandages, was somehow able to sing a song loudly and clearly for the camera, even though she had just had a tracheotomy, which means she had had her throat cut open so they could insert a tube to help her breathe. For her to sing like that would probably have been a medical miracle! Makes you wonder if that was the same girl on Tiananmen Square.
[the video ends]
Defense: For the record I would like to state that this procedure has been highly unusual.
Judge: It is recorded. Any more questions from defense?
Defense: None your honour.
Judge: Ms. Jin, you are saying that the allegations made against Falun Gong in the Chinese media were essentially falsified.
Ms. Jin: Yes, your honour. I would say that this entire persecution has been entirely based on lies and deception. I think Jiang has taken the Chinese people for a ride. I think he's betrayed his own people.
Judge -- Thank you, Ms. Jin.
(The rest of script will be published in instalments on Clearharmony over the coming days)
* * *
You are welcome to print and circulate all articles published on Clearharmony and their content, but please quote the source.
more ...