Chinese dissident Xu Kun was charged with “provoking and provoking trouble” after he tweeted more than 200 messages in support of Hong Kong’s “anti-China” campaign and commenting on Li Peng and June 4. The case was heard in a Kunming court on Wednesday, and the judge will deliver the verdict at a later date.
The defendant, Xu Kun, was detained by police in August last year on charges of picking quarrels and provoking trouble, and was later charged with picking quarrels and provoking trouble by the Longpan District Prosecutor’s Office in Kunming, after he tweeted a large number of pictures and texts of Hong Kong’s “anti-China” demonstrations and criticized the late Chinese leader Li Peng for his close ties to the June 4 massacre.
The case was heard by video at the Panlong District Court on Wednesday afternoon, while Xu Kun answered questions via video from the detention center. Just after 2 p.m. that day, Xu Kun’s wife, Li Lanzhen, and Xu Kun’s daughter, Xu Lu, and Xu Kun’s brother, accompanied the defense lawyer, Li Guisheng, into the courtroom. Li Lanzhen told Radio Free Asia at the scene, “We have now arrived outside the courthouse, the weather is sunny, there are many people, there are three people from the family, and also the lawyer, four people in total.”
Li Lanzhen said that when they entered courtroom four, there were already six unfamiliar spectators present. The indictment alleges that Xu Kun tweeted “a lot of inaccurate and harmful information that denigrated the Chinese state system, the Chinese Communist Party, insulted Chinese leaders, and distorted major domestic events,” among other things.
The court was opened by video, and Xu Kun’s wife, Li Lanzhen, was present in the courtroom.
The prosecution has no concrete evidence that Xu Kun slandered and defamed the national leaders
Xu Kun’s appointed defender is Guizhou lawyer Li Guisheng. Li Lanzhen said that lawyer Li Guisheng pleaded not guilty for Xu Kun: “This time the court is held by video, we can not see people, only hear the sound. Li Guisheng, the lawyer, pleaded not guilty in court. They (the prosecution) said that Xu Kun slandered and defamed the national leader. But lawyer Li Guisheng asked them to give examples, and they didn’t.”
The station called Li Guisheng, the lawyer representing Xu Kun in the case. He tried to inquire about the trial, but Li said he was not at liberty to give interviews to foreign media: “I don’t accept interviews from your foreign media, we (are) punished for giving interviews.”
According to the Ministry of Justice’s latest regulations, Chinese mainland lawyers are not allowed to give interviews to foreign media without permission, and if they do, they will “violate the discipline of legal practice” and will be punished accordingly.
According to Mr. Chen, a family friend of Xu Kun’s, during the trial, the prosecutor used a lot of Cultural Revolution language to accuse Xu Kun of slandering and defaming former leader Li Peng’s statements during June 4, but could not give specific examples.
Indictment by the Kunming Panlong District Prosecutor’s Office (Courtesy of volunteer/reporter Qiao Long)
More than 230 statements in 1,000 tweets allegedly illegal
The above-mentioned family and friends told the station that during the two-hour trial, the prosecutor accused Xu Kun of more than two hundred tweets: “There were more than a thousand retweets on Twitter, and they selected more than two hundred and thirty to convict Xu Kun. They involve views on the amendment of Hong Kong’s laws, as well as views on some of the country’s original leaders, and some of the current (leaders’) views on how to govern the country. The controversy is that Xu Kun does not deny what he did, he says I tweeted, and he does not consider it a crime. I think it’s in the realm of freedom of speech for citizens.”
The prosecutor argued that Xu Kun ignored national laws and used the Internet to bash and denigrate state power and political parties and insult national leaders, which is a bad situation and disrupts the social order, and his behavior violated Article 293 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, and the criminal facts are clear and the evidence is solid and sufficient, so he should be held criminally responsible for the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble.
Xu Kun’s wife, Li Lanzhen, said the defense attorney argued that there was no debate process in this trial to prove the charges against Xu Kun on the indictment. The lawyer found in the transcript that Xu Kun’s claims were consistent with the Chinese Communist Party’s advocacy of democracy and freedom, among other ideas. Xu Kun refused to plead guilty, but was accused by the prosecution of having a bad attitude and asked the court to impose a heavy sentence. She said, “The prosecutor asked Xu Kun, “Are you guilty? Xu Kun said, I am not guilty. The public prosecutor, however, said that you have a bad attitude and should be punished severely and severely.”
According to Xu Kun’s family, Xu Kun said during his self-defense that what he did did not violate the law of the land and that he was exercising his constitutional right to freedom of expression as a citizen. The Constitution is a promise to citizens that is sacrosanct and cannot be violated. Li Guisheng’s lawyer was dumbfounded during the entire court session when he answered the prosecution and the final presentation of his defense. After 5 p.m., the judge announced that the trial was over and the verdict would be delivered at a later date.
The last time the trial was held was on July 16, when the judge adjourned the trial after 10 minutes.
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