Practitioner Arrested for Browsing Falun Gong Website

Mr. Jin Biao was arrested and put on trial for browsing Falun Gong websites. This case might shed some light on the communist regime's surveillance of the Internet.

The Chinese Internet police, based in Dandong City, Liaoning Province, discovered that Mr. Jin was browsing Falun Gong websites on his mobile phone at his home in Fengcheng City at 3:00 p.m. on July 2nd, 2014. The Dandong police ordered the Fengcheng police to arrest him.

After being detained for more than two months, Mr. Zhu was put on trial on September 23rd, 2014, in Fengcheng City.

The prosecutor, Tang Jinfeng, presented evidence against Mr. Jin, “The police traced him online when he was downloading Falun Gong materials.” Mr. Jin's attorney responded, “The police violated the law by eavesdropping on a citizen online.”

The lawyer pleaded not guilty on behalf of his client, based on China's constitution, which gives Chinese citizens freedom of belief, and demanded that the court release him without delay.

Mr. Jin told the court that he had benefitted physically and mentally from practising Falun Gong, because he lives by its guiding principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

He said, “I will not renounce Falun Gong.”

Judge Pan Shuqin adjourned the trail without handing down a verdict.

Mr. Jin's lawyer had been warned by judge Pan Before the trial, not to bring up any important points in his defence. Pan said, “You will not comment on the legitimacy of Article 300 of the Criminal Law during the proceedings, nor will you be allowed to say that Falun Gong is not an evil cult. You will be stopped if you don't play by our rules.”

It is not clear whether Pan issued that mandate based on orders from her superiors, or at her own discretion.

The defence lawyer responded, “These are points that I must bring up, since you will use those laws to convict my client. I have scrutinised all of Chinese law and found nothing that defines Falun Gong as an evil cult.”

Mr. Jin, who is in his thirties, is employed at the Yuanjiagou Steel Manufacturing Company in Fengcheng City, Liaoning Province. He lives in the Tianhewan District of Fengcheng. He is being held in the Fengcheng Detention Centre.