On April 12, 2005, five Falun Gong practitioners and the Falun Dafa Association in Japan officially filed a lawsuit with the Osaka Local Court against Jiang Zemin, former Chinese President, Li Lanqing, first vice premier of China's State Council, Luo Gan, Head of the 610 Office, and Xia Deren, Deputy Governor of Liaoning Province and the Chinese Embassy in Japan. The lawsuit charged Jiang Zemin, Li Lanqing, Luo Gan and Xia Deren with crimes of genocide, torture and crimes against humanity. The Chinese Embassy was charged with the crime of genocide and libel.

An Osaka local court rejected the lawsuit last October under the excuse of "State Immunity". Following that, lawyers for the practitioners filed an appeal in November to the Osaka High Court. On January 11, 2006, the lawyer formally filed the appeal documents and held a press conference.

Lawyer for the practitioner plaintiffs

Representative of Falun Gong practitioners in Japan

At the press conference, the lawyer explained the reasons for the appeal: that the defendants, Jiang Zemin and other Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials committed genocide and torture.

The banning of genocide and torture is compelling law "jus cogens" in international law. The compelling law is the highest in international law. Any international law is considered invalid if it conflicts with jus cogens. In this case in Japan, the Chinese Embassy conducted various forms of libel against the plaintiffs, which is way the CCP tries to eliminate Falun Gong overseas. The intention of the libel is to eliminate Falun Gong, which is different from libel designed to destroy an individual's reputation. Thus, because the libel of the Chinese Embassy violates international law jus cogens, the "State Immunity Act" does not apply. The Osaka local court did not consider the defendants' crime of genocide, but focused only on state immunity, so its ruling was not right.

Further, the lawyer pointed out that the Osaka local court violated legal precedent of Supreme Court by formally turning down the plaintiff's petition without sending the petition to the defendants and verifying if the defendants responded to the prosecution and conducted hearing.

Thus, the plaintiff's lawyer requested the Osaka High Court to overturn the ruling of the local court.

At the press conference, the lawyer pointed out that the brutality of the persecution of Falun Gong in China is worse than the Nazi's genocide of Jews in World War II. For the unprecedented persecution against practitioners following Truth, Compassion, Forbearance, lawyers protecting freedom and human rights cannot stand by without taking any action. He believed that the lawsuit will get a justice ruling.

Two practitioners gave speeches at the press conference. One practitioner representative of the Falun Dafa Association of Japan talked about the escalation of the CCP's persecution in China. He gave an example of the recent raping of women practitioners in Zhuozhou by a police officer. He pointed out that all such atrocities and the libel from the Chinese embassies were intended to contribute to the genocide of Falun Gong practitioners. He mentioned the evidence disclosed by defecting former CCP diplomat Chen Yonglin which pointed out that the priority task of the Chinese embassies is to wage genocide against Falun Gong. He called on righteous people in all circles in Japan to stand up and condemn the brutal persecution.

The other practitioner talked about his personal suffering in China to explain how the CCP persecuted a Japanese citizen for his practice of Falun Gong. He was beaten brutally for explaining the facts in China. After his return to Japan, the Chinese Embassy slandered him on its website. He hoped that Japanese law could protect him against defamation by the CCP.

The chief culprit, Jiang Zemin, has been sued in 16 countries around the world. Chinese embassies and officials have been sued in 9 countries for personal attacks, damaging property, harassment, and libel. The "610 Office" and its head have been sued in 23 countries. CCP officials involved in the persecution of Falun Gong have been sued in 19 countries. Four international organizations have accused Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Zeng Qinghong, Li Fengqing, the "610 Office" and all CCP officials involved in the persecution.

(1/13/2006 13:35)

NEW YORK (FDI) - The U.S. Consulate in Shanghai has notified individuals close to U.S. citizen Dr. Charles Lee that he is to be released and deported back to the United States on January 21, following a three-year unlawful imprisonment in a Chinese prison (news). We welcome the news of Lee's upcoming return and wish to thank the individuals in the U.S. government and Shanghai Consulate who have worked on his case for their efforts thus far.

At the same time, past experience shows that Lee has entered a critical period and close attention must now be paid to his case. We cannot take for granted that he will be released as Chinese authorities promise, nor that he will be treated fairly.

The case of Zhao Ming, who had also been a prominent prisoner of conscience, is telling. Zhao was arrested for submitting a petition to the Chinese regime about the persecution of Falun Gong during his winter break from Ireland's Trinity College in December 1999. He was later administratively sentenced to one year in a labor camp. In spite of the international attention brought to his imprisonment, two days before Zhao's scheduled release his captors decided he was not sufficiently "reeducated" and arbitrarily extended his jail term by another ten months.

Student organizations in Ireland and around the world led a vigorous campaign for Zhao, and Irish politicians spoke out on his behalf. On January 4, 2002, the Chinese Communist Party's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan promised Ireland's Foreign Minister Brian Cowen that Zhao would be released on March 12, 2002, and would not be mistreated. Tang's words proved to be a lie.

Two weeks before his second release date, Zhao was brutally tortured. One evening five policemen dragged him into an office and tied him to a wooden bench using a strip of cloth across his mouth, forcing down his head. They pulled out electric batons with special wires that allowed for a much wider area to be electrocuted. Administering six batons simultaneously, each with voltage in the tens of thousands, the policemen shocked his entire body, causing Zhao to fiercely twitch and jump. The assault represented a last-ditch effort to break Zhao's spirit, as his captors tried to coerce him into signing papers denouncing Falun Gong.

The Falun Dafa Information Center is concerned that, out of our sight, Lee may face similar danger over the next few days. Although he is an American citizen, an Amnesty International group member, and a prisoner of conscience whose case has been made prominent by congresspersons and the media, Lee has already been repeatedly abused and tortured.

Police beat him when he landed in southern China on January 22, 2003. Prison guards later deprived him of sleep for days and tied him to a wooden plank with his limbs stretched out in painful positions for nine hours. They put him through a show trial in which he could not even defend himself, and sent him away to Nanjing Prison for three years.

In detention, Lee's captors instigated six inmates to constantly monitor him and beat him repeatedly when he tried to perform the gentle Falun Gong exercises. Prison officials then refused to pass on a letter he wrote, while handcuffed, to the U.S. consulate. The letter, which detailed the abuses Lee has suffered in detention, was finally passed on only after he embarked on an eight-day hunger strike to demand his consular rights. In a separate hunger strike to protest abuses, guards used the dangerous force-feeding method of shoving a plastic tube up his nose and down into his throat. They then left the tube in this excruciating position for 33 hours to torment him.

Chinese Communist Party officials claim that Lee was jailed for planning to override cable broadcast signals. Lee acknowledges his intention to use this method to break through the regime's monopoly on Falun Gong-related information. This monopoly has meant that only state propaganda aimed at inciting public hatred against Falun Gong, such as the fabricated "self-immolation" incident, is shown on Chinese television; evidence of the practice's persecution in China or its being practiced freely worldwide is strictly taboo.

Lee has argued that this nonviolent way of breaking through the information blockade is justified given the severe, underground persecution of Falun Gong practitioners that has claimed the lives of thousands in China over the last six years. Future generations of Americans, and Chinese, may very well associate Lee with the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. These people jeopardized their own well-being for the greater good. They broke laws, but the laws were unjust, and their peaceful actions--seen from our perspective today--were rightful.

Regardless of what the charges may be, it is clear that Lee's captors are first and foremost treating him as a Falun Gong prisoner: breaking his belief in Falun Gong has been their top priority. How else could one explain their beating Lee for meditating in his cell or forcing him to sit motionless for hours on end watching anti-Falun Gong videos? The daily sessions, which could only be described as attempts to brainwash Lee, have reportedly caused a serious deterioration in his health.

In these final, critical days of Lee's detention, the FDI is asking that the U.S. government make public its concern for Charles Lee's well being. U.S. elected officials including California Senator Dianne Feinstein--who has close relations with the Chinese regime, Ambassador Clark T. Randt, the State Department, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and President George W. Bush would do a great service not only to a courageous fellow American, but also to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have signed petitions and fought for his release. We urge all who can to publicly press CCP officials for Lee's safety and timely return.

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For interviews and analysis on Charles Lee's case, please contact Dr. Sherry Zhang (415-845-5295). For more additional news stories, visit: http://faluninfo.net/fdifocus.asp?FocusType=Charles_Li

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IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Jan. 13, 2006
Falun Dafa Information Center, www.faluninfo.net

At present Falun Gong practitioners, particularly those who are coodinators and contact persons, are under threat of a targeted email virus attack.

The virus, which takes advantage of the Windows image file vulnerability, has already been directed at Falun Gong contact persons in the US, and perhaps in other areas. The problem was announced by Microsoft on Dec. 27, and by Dec. 30, Falun Gong contact persons began to recieve a new round of email viruses with infected images as attachments. There was no alert system in place to warn practitioners of this threat. This virus is not detected by anti-virus software.

Last spring, a round of email viruses was directed at Falun Gong practitioners. At that time, though our computer experts knew that the virus infected computers, they were uncertain about the activity of the virus. As the recipient of one of those viruses, which was hidden in a Microsoft Word macro, I now know that this was what is called a rootkit virus.

This rootkit virus would have gone undetected had I been using Microsoft Internet Explorer, as my antivirus software did not detect it. The virus operates much like spyware, by opening a "backdoor" and sending information or data over the internet connection, and also replaces many of the operating system files so that the computer may be controlled remotely or by software commands.

It is possible that this stealth program is operating today on a number of practitioners' computers, sending information back to China, unknown to the practitioner. Anti-virus software may detect the delivery system, but once it is in place, it cannot be detected by the anti-virus software. Special rootkit detection software is necessary to detect the presence of these threats.

Because of the past and potential losses to our practitioners, it seems that we might give some thought to the formation of an alert system, and a resource system to inform practitioners about the security threats. Possibly it is time to begin collecting cases of virus (and telephone) attacks so that we have a ready resource for truth clarification activities and lawsuits.