Aug 18, 2004

On August 9, a Russian resident filed a lawsuit in Moscow against top Chinese official Bo Xilai for persecuting Falun Gong in China. This is the fourth time the Minister of Commerce has been singled-out for crimes against humanity.

The plaintiff filed a civil lawsuit with the public prosecutor's office charging Bo, who had just completed a three day trip to Russia, with torture and genocide. As mayor of Dalian and governor of Liaoning Province, Bo orchestrated what experts claim has been a particularly brutal campaign in northeastern China.

Falun Gong, a spiritual practice claiming tens of millions of adherents, was banned in China in 1999 and has since received brutal treatment from the Chinese regime. Human rights organizations and the United Nations have documented thousands of cases of torture by Chinese authorities against members of the spiritual group, including 1023 death cases.

Plaintiff Li Dan, a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner who lives in Russia, was detained three times in the province Bo governed. In February 2002, after being tricked into going to a police station, Li was sent to a labor camp. During his detention, guards beat and force-fed Li, a dangerous practice that has become a primary cause of death among Falun Gong practitioners in custody.

Li's complaint, which was accepted and is being processed by Russia's Inquisitorial Court, alleges that Bo led Liaoning Province authorities in closely following Jiang Zemin's orders to eradicate Falun Gong. The resulting systematic torture and killing fits the definition of genocide as outlined in Article 357 of Russia's Federal Criminal Law Code, according to the suit.

This is the second time plaintiffs are citing the article to sue a Chinese official. Plaintiffs previously filed a lawsuit against former president Jiang Zemin under the same article at the end of June 2004.

When asked about the significance of the new lawsuit against Bo, John Jaw of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong said, "Russia has very close relations with China, as both were Communist countries before." Jaw says that this lawsuit shows that "other countries have independent judicial systems, unlike China."

From Promotion to Prosecution

Jiang personally promoted Bo from mayor to governor after the persecution Bo supervised in his city led to the death of fifteen Falun Gong practitioners, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.

According to the Center, during Bo's three year tenure as governor, Liaoning became one of the five provinces where the persecution of Falun Gong was the most brutal. At least 100 practitioners are verified to have been tortured to death there. In 2003, Liaoning Province invested 500 million Yuan to construct China's first prison complex built exclusively to detain Falun Gong adherents.

The investment seems to be backfiring for Bo, who now faces lawsuits wherever he goes. Since April, various plaintiffs have sued him during visits to the United States, Great Britain, Romania and Poland.

Falun Gong practitioners were en-route to sue Bo during a trip to South Africa in June when a drive-by shooting prevented them from serving him the papers in time. South African police classified the attack as attempted murder and are investigating possible links to the Chinese officials visiting Johannesburg at the time.

Source: http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-8-18/22920.html