On the afternoon of February 13, six Falun Gong practitioners in Singapore protested against the verdict handed down by judge Terence Chua Seng Leng in the Subordinate Court. The judge found all six guilty of "assembling without a permit" and fined each of them 1,000 Singapore dollars or one week in prison. All six defendants refused to admit guilt or submit to the fine. But one of the defendant's family members paid the fine for all six of them without their knowledge and they were released.
The six Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced for events that occurred over two years ago. On October 23, 2005, they distributed fliers about the persecution of Falun Gong in China on Orchard Road in Singapore. Their indictment was one of four accusations against Falun Gong brought up by the police one month after China's former head of the "610 Office" Li Lanqing, visited Singapore in June 2006. The charge laid upon them was for "assembling without a permit" in July 2006,
The court case started on January 22, 2007. The judge ruled out any observers and the six defendants protested against it. They were then sentenced to two days detention for contempt of court. The trail resumed on Wednesday January 24, 2007, however the judge made some concessions by changing the courtroom which then allowed 16 observers.
In the following 13 days of court trial sessions, the defendants pointed out that the witness' statements were questionable. For example, the defendants claimed that two police witnesses lied. The video tape, the only submitted evidence by police, had been edited, therefore there was no proof to confirm the authenticity according to the defendants. The tapes had no record of time to prove that during the time defined in the charge the defendants were on site. There was no witness who reported the case. The tape did not show that the six defendants were together at one time, etc. As for the witnesses requested by the defendants, such as Lee Kuan Yew, Huang Gencheng, etc. all were rejected by the court.
Three defendants pointed out that while they were on Orchard Road on October 23, 2005, the police who were present did not stop their activity that started from 11:00am to 4:00pm, the police even told the defendants "It's fine." Several defendants questioned the judge as to why the police did not stop their activity and in fact approved of it, and then ten months later they are prosecuted?
One of the defendants declared that the only explanation for this situation was the fact that the police are assisting the Singapore government to please the Chinese Communist Party by collecting data on Falun Gong activities.
Despite the alleged major flaws in the evidence given by the prosecutor, the judge, Terence CHUA Seng Leng, said that it did not affect his judgment because he used the verdict on the 2004 Falun Gong "Assembly without permit" as reference and the fact that these six defendants were all present on Oct 23, to sentence them guilty. One of the defendants, Huang Caihua protested aloud "If you wish to incriminate someone, you will have no difficulty finding a pretext."
Another defendant, Dr. Wang Yuyi, said "I know you want to incriminate us, the behind the scene murderer is still not present in court, and others (pointing at the judge, police, the chief prosecutor) are but actors, I am appealing for the Mainland China Falun Gong students who are being persecuted, this court trial session is also to appeal for them, I will continue to appeal with my fellow practitioners until the day the persecution is stopped."
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