(Minghui.org) A senior couple in Gansu Province has filed a criminal complaint against former dictator Jiang Zemin on May 19. They, like numerous other Falun Gong practitioners, have suffered physically, mentally, and financially in the past 16 years as a result of the nationwide persecution of the practice launched by Jiang in 1999.
Complaints filed by Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Fan Yongcheng and Ms. Lei Zhanxiang.
Mailing receipt of the complaints.
In their complaint to the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the couple called for Jiang to be charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, deprivation of citizens' right religious belief, illegal detention, among other abuses. They also asked that the prosecution lift all bans on Falun Gong and release all practitioners detained for their belief.
Mr. Fang Yongcheng, 75, and his wife Ms. Lei Zhanxiang, 61, are from Jinchang City, Gansu Province. For refusing to give up their belief, Mr. Fan was twice detained and given a prison sentence of 12 years; Ms. Lei was detained seven times and imprisoned for 7 years. Their son was left behind without their care.
Mr. Fan Yongcheng Subjected to Forced Labor, Torture
Mr. Fan started practicing Falun Gong in 1997. Two years later, Jiang Zemin launched the persecution campaign, and Mr. Fan was locked up in a substance-abuse rehabilitation center–once in 1999 and once in 2000–for refusing to give up the practice.
Police in Jinchang City broke into his apartment in July 2001, attempting to seize a photo of the founder of Falun Gong and use it as evidence to arrest him. To avoid further persecution, Mr. Fan and his wife left their home and went separate ways. They had to leave their school-age son to their daughter, who was working at the time. The police constantly threatened his daughter's job to pressure her to turn in her parents; police also arbitrarily revoked Mr. Fan's pension.
Mr. Fan was arrested again on March 6, 2002 along with 56 other practitioners for putting up posters and banners exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. Yongchang County Court sentenced Mr. Fan to 12 years in Lanzhou Prison. He was subjected to forced labor, having to manually peel garlic from 6 a.m. to midnight. This resulted in his fingernails separating from his flesh.
Mr. Fan was transferred to Jiuquan Prison in December 2005 with 20 other practitioners. There, they suffered unspeakable torture, including beating, burning, and solitary confinement. He was once forced to sit still on a “small stool” around the clock for 13 days and deprived of sleep, resulting in festering sores on his buttocks and was unable to sit for four and half years.
Mr. Fan was released on May 26, 2010.
Ms. Lei Zhanxiang (Mr. Fan's wife) Repeatedly Beaten
Ms. Lei Zhanxiang recovered from rheumatoid arthritis, gallstones, frozen shoulder, and lower limb paralysis shortly after she began practicing Falun Gong.
Three days after the persecution started, Ms. Lei was arrested and detained overnight. After she went to protest the persecution in Beijing in December 1999, she was detained four more times within a year, with detention terms ranging from two to 40 days.
Ms. Lei was arrested in January 2001 and sentenced in a secret trial to 18 months in a forced labor camp. However, Ms. Lei was not admitted to the labor camp because she did not pass the physical exam, so she was sent to Jinchang City Drug Rehabilitation Center for one month.
Forced to leave home to avoid further persecution in 2001, Ms. Lei was arrested in December 2005 for distributing literature about the persecution of Falun Gong. In Yongchang County Detention Center, she was tied down on a bed for two days. She went on a hunger strike to protest the abuse and was tortured until she couldn't walk.
The Yongchang County Court sentenced her to seven years in prison on April 26, 2006. At Gansu Women's Prison, she was deprived of sleep. The prison guard and death row prisoners took turns beating her. Several of her teeth were knocked out, and several more were loosened. Ms. Lei was repeatedly beaten for months and was covered in bruises and wounds.
At the end of 2006, Ms. Lei was subjected to forced labor and made to weave nets outdoors, even in harsh weather conditions.
In August 2009 Ms. Lei was put in solitary refinement and ordered to write “thought reports.” When Ms. Lei refused to comply, the authorities had two death row prisoners beat her every day until she couldn't move. The beatings went on for 40 days. These prisoners were awarded points and received sentence reductions.
On December 27, 2010, Ms. Lei was sent home and saw her husband for the first time after they parted eight years earlier.
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.
