(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners in Zhaoyuan, Shandong Province have recently been detained and harassed after filing criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin.

Fourteen practitioners filed criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin, the former Communist Party leader, on July 16, 2015. The Shandong Province High Procuratorate accepted the complaints, while the High Court refused them, citing a non-designated date for accepting complaints from the Yantai area, where the practitioners resided.

Maltreatment After Complaints

The harassment began on their way home. The Zhaoyuan police stopped the practitioners right after their car exited the highway into Yantai. Nine of the practitioners were arrested on July 16-17, 2015. Others were harassed and put under surveillance.

The arrested practitioners included Ms. Yan Xuefen, Mr. Yan Xuerong, Mr. Liu Ximin, Ms. Chi Ruimei, Ms. Qiu Cuimin and Ms. Lan Meiyu from Biguo Town, Ms. Wang Meijiu and Mr. Wu Kelin from Qishan Town, and Ms. Liu Wanli from the city.

Ms. Yan Xuefen was arrested at home on July 17. Police broke into her home without showing identification, ransacked the home, and seized personal belongings valued at tens of thousands of yuan.

Police detained the practitioners at the Lingnan Gold Mine Brainwashing Center, where they were interrogated, and falsely charged with “using a cult to undermine implementation of the law.”

The practitioners were transferred to the Fushan Detention Center on July 23. Ms. Qiu, Ms. Wang, Ms. Lan, and Ms. Liu were released on bail because of their health conditions on July 23 and July 24. The remaining five practitioners have been incarcerated at the detention center.

Background

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

The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners over 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 communist regime established an extralegal security organization, 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 its citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.