(Minghui.org) Retired Luan County official Mr. Yang Fengjiu recently sent a complaint and filed a lawsuit against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. Jiang launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999 and Mr. Yang, refusing to give up his belief, was kidnapped many times and suffered relentless torture and imprisonment.

Receipt of express mail (EMS) sent by Mr. Yang Fengjiu

The criminal complaint was sent on May 26 to the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate. In the complaint, Mr. Yang demanded that authorities follow the law and punish Jiang for the crimes he committed.

Mr. Yang demanded redress for himself and the founder of Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongzhi. He demanded that he be compensated for mental and economic losses and the release of all illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners. He also pressed for a public apology to the practitioners and their families who died or were injured during the persecution.

Mr. Yang Fengjiu's Persecution Accounts

The police arrested Mr. Yang on October 18, 2008 as he was going home. They ransacked his home that night and confiscated his cash and personal belongings. He was detained for two weeks in the Luan County Detention Center. The guards immobilized him on an Iron Chair for four consecutive days because he refused to renounce Falun Gong. He was then forced to perform manual labor, including pitting hawthorn berries for a canning company and wrapping chopsticks. The intensive physical work worsened his heart problems.

Iron Chair: a means to torture Falun Gong practitioners and force them into renouncing their belief.

Despite his irregular heartbeat and severe hypertension, Mr. Yang was transferred to Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp and tortured for over a year. After frequent sessions of sleep deprivation and intensive forced labor, Mr. Yang lost 55 pounds and his heart rate rose dangerously high. Camp authorities didn't want to be responsible if he died and released him on January 10, 2010.

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 practitioners: 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.