Issued by Clearwisdom Net

Human rights lawyer Peter Bergquist and Swedish Falun Gong practitioners file the lawsuit at Kungsholmsgatan police station in Stockholm.

STOCKHOLM - Human rights lawyer Peter Bergquist, representing the Swedish Falun Dafa Association, filed a lawsuit on Monday June 13 against the former Chinese head of state Jiang Zemin and leaders of the 610 Office, Li Lanqing, Luo Gan, Liu Jing, Ding Guangen and others, charging them with participation in crimes of murder and kidnapping of Falun Gong practitioners. The lawsuit was filed at Kungsholmsgatan police station in Stockholm.

Mr. Bergquist, known for his role as legal counsel in the Swedish Dagmar Hagelin case against the Argentine marine lieutenant Alfredo Aztiz, stated in the lawsuit that Jiang Zemin personally ordered the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, as well as creating the 610 Office to centralize and co-ordinate the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners all over China.

The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion confirmed the extensive human rights violations in a report dated 15 March 2005. More than 2,500 Falun Gong practitioners have died in imprisonment, several hundred were sentenced to jails terms of over 20 years, a high number of practitioners have been sent to labor camps without trial and others have been falsely interned in mental hospitals.

Mr. Bergquist said these acts of persecutions are actually acts of murder and kidnapping according to Swedish Law and the Penalty Code, which entitles the Swedish courts to punish the offenders under the doctrines of universal jurisdiction.

A major portion of the crimes described in the lawsuit violated the articles of the UN Convention against Torture, which both Sweden and China have ratified. In addition, these crimes are in violation of the Chinese Penalty Code, which means that Chinese authorities are required to co-operate in the event of a Swedish criminal investigation and extradition request.

Similar lawsuits against Jiang Zemin and other Chinese officials have been initiated in Germany, France, Finland, Belgium, Holland, Australian, Spain, England, Island, Cyprus, USA, Canada, South Africa, Taiwan, South Korea and other countries.

Mr. Bergquist said that attempts to punish high officials can be gathered from the case of the Spanish Prosecutor Baltazar Carcon's attempt to summon Pinochet. Experience from that case show that legal actions in other countries can stimulate the judicial process in the homeland. The lawsuits all over the world can hopefully in a longer perspective enhance human rights developments in China.

Early in the morning of May 28, 2005, we arrived at the ancient University Square in Rostock and chose a shady spot for our Falun Gong information stall. We quickly finished setting up and soon the first passers-by received flyers with information about the persecution of Falun Gong by the Communist Government in China. We took turns demonstrating the five sets of Falun Gong exercises. We informed some of the nearby tradesmen about our activities and one of the practitioners walked around the busier shopping streets distributing flyers.

Apart from the Falun Gong information stall, we also held a small anti-torture exhibition, re-enacting a few of the many torture methods used in attempts to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their beliefs. One practitioner was dressed as a policeman, while another two took turns sitting on a tiger bench or in a small cage to demonstrate torture methods used in Chinese labor camps and police stations. A tiger bench sees the victim tied on a narrow wooden or iron bench by the thighs and knees, with hands tied behind the back. The legs are bent in the opposite direction by adding bricks under the heels. The torture creates excruciating pain.

Some people even started to worry about the well being of the actors in the cage and on the tiger bench because the hot sun had become almost unbearable by noon. We explained that they were willing to accept a bit of discomfort if it would help more people know what is happening to the practitioners in China. Several people studied our small exhibition carefully and expressed their shock at the human rights abuses carried out by the CCP. We carefully explained the facts about Falun Gong to those who took the time to ask us for additional information and we asked them to sign our petition calling for the abolishment of diplomatic immunity for Jiang Zemin in Germany. Jiang instigated the persecution against Falun Gong in 1999 when he was head of the CCP. He used the vicious nature of the Chinese Communist Party, which is responsible for the deaths of 100 million Chinese people since it came to power, to carry out his personal vendetta against Falun Gong.

At the same time as our activity took place, a professional advertising agent was preparing a commercial for a mobile phone provider next to our stall. We explained to him what we were doing and handed him a flyer. Soon, he began to support us through his public address system, asking everyone on the square to help us. The whole atmosphere on the square was very positive and strong.