The four allegedly organized a session of 183 local Falungong members in a park on August 8, two weeks after the government banned the group as an ``illegal organization''. The trial was apparently open to the public, but court officials said that it would be ``inappropriate'' for the foreign press to attend.

The Falungong was officially banned throughout China as an illegal organization on July 22. A parliamentary decision late last month greatly widened the scope of police and judicial powers to crack down on the group. Arrests of some members have revealed thegovernment's intention of using the legislation retroactively to prosecute followers for actions committed before the ban.

The group practices traditional Chinese meditation and breathing exercises and advocates high moral values. On April 25, Chinese leaders were shocked when some 10,000 Falungong protesters demonstrated against the pending ban in Front of Communist Party headquarters in central Beijing.