(Minghui.org) A total of over 300 Falun Gong practitioners from Yishui County, Shandong Province have filed criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin between May 24 and December 25, 2015, according to reports compiled by the Minghui website.

The practitioners charge the former Chinese dictator with initiating the brutal suppression of Falun Gong and hold him responsible for the tremendous suffering inflicted upon them by his campaign. The criminal complaints were mailed to the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Many of these practitioners recounted how Falun Gong returned them to health and gave them a new outlook on life. Their dream to live a healthier and happier life, however, was shattered when Jiang Zemin launched a nationwide campaign to eradicate the practice in 1999.

Simply for refusing to give up their belief, they were arrested, detained, tortured, and had their homes ransacked and personal belongings seized. Many saw their families implicated for their belief, while some were also forced to pay huge fines.

Below, we profile two families.

Couple Sues Jiang for Torture and Repeated Forced Labor

Ms. Zhou Rong (周荣), 62, and her husband, Mr. Ren Lifa (任立法), were subjected to forced labor, torture and extortion.

Ms. Zhou was arrested for appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing in 1999. She was beaten by eight officers and shocked with electric batons repeatedly. She could not walk afterwards. Her husband was beaten for six hours after he refused to pay 5,000 yuan in fines. He suffered two broken ribs and was eventually forced to pay 2,250 yuan.

The couple was given two years of forced labor in 2001, and their daughter was left without their care.

Ms. Zhou was given forced labor two more times. She spent one and a half years in a labor camp in 2009, and another year in 2011.

Teen Given Three Years of Forced Labor

Ms. Zhang Shengfen (张升芬), her husband Ma Xingxiang (马兴祥), and their daughter Ma Na (马娜) were repeatedly arrested, tortured and extorted for their belief in Falun Gong.

Miss Ma was first arrested along with her parents in 1999 when she was 15 years old. She was arrested again in 2002 and given three years of forced labor. She was force-fed, locked up in a cage, and deprived of sleep.

While she was in detention, her parents left home to avoid further arrest, leaving behind her 11-year-old brother and her elderly grandmother.

Related article:A Family of Cultivators from Yaodianzi Town, Yishui County, Shandong Province, Suffer Serious Persecution

Background

In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.

The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners in the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.

Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.

Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.