(Minghui.org) Mr. Li Wen was sentenced to three years in prison by the Hexi District Court in Tianjin on July 15, 2016. In the verdict, the court cited as evidence the legal complaints Mr. Li filed against Jiang Zemin, the former head of Chinese Communist Party who initiated the violent persecution of Falun Gong.
During the trial on March 28, Mr. Li’s attorney entered a plea of not guilty and argued that Mr. Li was exercising his civil right to sue Jiang, and that it is against China’s constitution to use the complaint as evidence.
The attorney also refuted the charge against Mr. Li, which is based on Article 300 of Chinese Criminal Law–“using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement.”
“At least a hundred lawyers, in more than a thousand trials, have pointed out that the suppression of Falun Gong has no legal basis. Article 300 of the Chinese Criminal Law has been abused to frame Falun Gong practitioners,” said the attorney during the trial.
Mr. Li filed his complaint against Jiang Zemin in June 2015. He was arrested on July 30, 2015. His home was later ransacked by police.
Leading up to the trial, the Hexi District Procuratorate twice returned Mr. Li's case to the Hexi Police Department due to insufficient evidence.
Mr. Li, 48, a Tsinghua University graduate and a technical expert, was arrested in July 2001 for practicing Falun Gong and sentenced to seven years.
Mr. Li was tortured in Tianjin City Prison, where he was forced to sit on a “small stool” for long periods of time. The stool was about one inch wide, one inch tall, and four to five inches long. His buttocks festered after a few days.
From the long term torture, he came down with pleurisy, an inflammation of the lining surrounding the lungs. He was also given drugs that damaged his liver.
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 policy 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.
Earlier reports:Three Chinese Court Cases Highlight the Unlawful Nature of the Persecution of Falun GongTianjin Factory Director Arrested Again After 7 Years ImprisonmentSitting on a Small Stool: How the CCP Turns an Ordinary Piece of Furniture Into an Instrument of Torture