(Minghui.org) A total of 573 Falun Gong practitioners from Wuqing County, Tianjin have filed 508 criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin, 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 by the communist authorities. Many also saw their families implicated for their belief, while some were also forced to pay huge fines.

Overview of Selected Cases

Below, we profile a few of these practitioners who have been repeatedly arrested, imprisoned, or sent to forced labor camps for practicing Falun Gong:

Ms. Yang Jian, 44 is serving a five-year term in Tianjin Women's Prison. Her mother said in the complaint, “Yang Jian was dismissed from her workplace due to her belief. Her newly allocated property was also taken back by the workplace.”

Businessman Pang Dejing, 43, was arrested with wife Ms. Liu Xinghui in Beijing in December 2000. While detained in Beijing, guards stripped him outside in freezing temperatures and poured buckets of cold water on him. In October 2002, he was sent to a forced labor camp for three years, where he was tortured and placed under strict monitoring.

Ms. Hou Shujun was detained three times between July 1999 and the end of 2000. During her year in a labor camp, she was forced to carry bags weighing 50 to 100 kilograms (110 to 220 pounds). She was deprived of sleep if she could not complete the quota. Ms. Hou's incarceration led to her teenage daughter being left home alone, with no food or money. She also faced discrimination at school.

Ms. Qi Guoyu, 53, has been repeatedly arrested and detained for talking to the public about the persecution of Falun Gong. She was interrogated, threatened, and had her home ransacked by police.

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.