Winnipeg Sun: 'Peg Lawyer Tackles China Torture Case

March 15, 2004

A Winnipeg lawyer is hoping to set legal precedent and prosecute the former leader of China for ordering his client's torture.

David Matas is one of two lawyers representing Kunlun Zhang, a professor who was arrested and tortured repeatedly for practicing Falun Gong -- a peaceful meditation practice outlawed by the Chinese government in 1999. Zhang was arrested soon after and subjected to shocks by high voltage electric batons, Matas said.

Zhang moved to Canada after the alleged torture in 2001 and became a Canadian citizen. Now he's hoping to bring his alleged torturers and their bosses to justice in a Canadian courtroom. In total 22 people have been identified, said Matas, including former Chinese president Jiang Zemin.

Matas said there is a section under the criminal code that allows this country's justice system to prosecute foreign cases of torture as long as it happened to a Canadian citizen. The attorney general must approve the case -- which Matas admitted is unprecedented in this country -- for it to go ahead.

"If the attorney general were to allow it, Canada, in theory, could go to interpol with these charges and they could go for an extradition treaty," said Matas. "If anything this could bottle these people up in their own country so they cannot leave."

Source: http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2004/03/15/382570.html