Issued by Clearwisdom Net

Spain's Supreme Court held a hearing on June 6, 2006, and ruled that it could accept a lawsuit brought by several victims accusing the top Chinese officials of committing genocide against Falun Gong in the past seven years.

The Advertiser (Australia) reported on June 7, 2006 that Spain's Supreme Court said on June 6, 2006 after holding a hearing that a lawsuit brought by Falun Gong accusing a top Chinese official of genocide could go ahead. That means Falun Gong can now appeal an earlier rejection of the lawsuit by the Audencia Nacional, Spain's highest criminal court.

The article states that Falun Gong brought the suit in September 2004 against Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), just before he visited Spain. Falun Gong practitioners accused Jia of committing genocide when he was secretary of the Chinese Communist Party's local committee in Beijing between 1999 and 2002.

The article states that The Audencia Nacional rejected the lawsuit on the grounds that it had not been established that Jia was in Spain. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the case was indeed within the jurisdiction of the country's courts. This follows its acceptance in October 2005 of the principle of "universal competence", which means that Spanish courts are competent to hear cases of genocide and crimes against humanity wherever they occur and whatever the nationality of the defendant.

The ruling came the day after another Spanish court began hearing a case against seven Chinese leaders accused of genocide, torture and crimes against humanity in Tibet during the 1980s.

The article also states that Spain became the first European Union country to sign an extradition treaty with Beijing in November 2005.

Clearwisdom.net reported on October 15, 2003, that practitioners filed a criminal lawsuit in Spain's La Audiencia Nacional against former CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin, accusing him of committing genocide and torture in the persecution of Falun Gong.

On May 27, 2006, practitioners held a Falun Gong Information Day in the neighborhood of "Porta Nigra"(the Big Black Gate) in Trier, the oldest German city, well known for its tourism. Even though the weather was not stable, tourists continued to pour in. Trier is located on Germany's border with France and Luxemburg.

In the bustling downtown area, the passers-by were astonished by the information boards and banners that exposed the organ harvest from living Falun Gong practitioners for profits. Behind the exhibition platform, two practitioners were demonstrating the peaceful Falun Gong exercises. With solemn expressions on their faces, many people stopped walking to watch the exhibition. Practitioners explained to them about CCP's unreasonable suppression and ferocious persecution against Falun Gong practitioners since July 20, 1999. Practitioners also gave accounts of the organ harvests from living Falun Gong practitioners for profit in forced labor camps and concentration camps in China.

When people were told that many Chinese people have been ruthlessly persecuted simply for practicing Falun Gong, they were shocked. A Philippine lady who lived in Paris walked toward a western practitioner and said, "I know the persecution that Falun Gong suffers in China. I am extremely sorry about it." A family traveling from Holland stopped at the information desk. With the wife listening carefully, the father squatted down and translated the information of the exhibition boards to his son. They took the flyer and left. Before long, the father came back. He tapped the shoulder of a practitioner repeatedly and in an encouraging tone, he said, "Hang in there. The whole world needs to know the truth." He expressed heartfelt appreciation to the practitioner for all the efforts to expose the truth.

A representative from a local women's organization approached practitioners. In addition to expressing her concerns, she also told practitioners that she would tell the truth to other members of her organization. She signed her name and specified the organization that she represented on the petition to be sent to the United Nations. There were also many passers-by who walked to the information desk to sign their names without saying a word.

An older lady told a practitioner that her son needed to make frequent business trips to China. She said she would take the flyer to him. A young couple pushed a stroller, inside which was their 3-month-old baby. When the mother was signing her name at the information desk, the father squatted down to read the flyer and the baby stared at the photos of Falun Gong practitioners with bruises all over their bodies due to brutal persecution. When they asked practitioners questions about the banner and the information boards, several passers-by also listened to the conversation. They all signed their names to support the petition for ending the persecution.

A young lady came to the information desk directly, took a flyer and left. She returned after a while. She told practitioners that she provided tour guide services to China's ambassador to Germany and had close contacts with some Chinese officials. As she was guiding a tourist group, she couldn't spend too much time at the spot. However, she would try to learn more via the Internet, and provide help to Falun Gong as far as possible.

The Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance International Art Exhibition opened in Helsinki on May the 30th and ran until June 5th. The exhibition consists of art works by Falun Gong practitioners depicting the beauty of the practice, the brutality of the human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners in China and the bravery and righteousness exhibited by the practitioners who have remained steadfast in their belief and upheld the truth when facing violence, propaganda and abuse from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The art works poetically suggest the beauty of a life lived by following Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance, the main principles of Falun Gong. The art works also depicted the grim realities of the cruel persecution that Falun Gong has faced at the hands of China's Communist regime. Powerful, real-to-life depictions of the persecution clearly show the evil nature of the abuses taking place against unjustly and illegally imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners in Chinese labor camps and prisons.

Parliament member and former MEP Ms. Heidi Hautala said in her opening speech that she hoped the exhibition will help people see the human rights situation in China, which very often is left in the shadow of the growing economy and investments. In a greeting from the Chairperson of the Finnish Parliament's Human Rights Group, Ms. Ulla Anttila, the emphasis was on the meaning of the universal nature of human rights. She also wished that the exhibition could act as an incentive for public and open discussion of human rights in China.

Opening speeches by MP Heidi Hautala and a member of the Finnish Falun Dafa Association

The initiative for the Zhen, Shan, Ren (Chinese for Truth, Compassion, Tolerance) International Art Exhibition came from the Art Professor Mr. Zhang Kunlun, whose greeting was also read in the ceremony. Professor Zhang was arrested and persecuted in China for his belief in Falun Gong. Zhang, like other artists whose work was on display, was jailed in labor camps and tortured. The exhibition is their way of raising awareness of the ongoing suffering of millions of Chinese at the hands of the Chinese Communist dictatorship.

Zhang and the rest of the artists seemed to have achieved their goal quite powerfully. Finnish TV Channel 3 (MTV3), who came to the opening ceremony, spent more than three hours at the exhibition interviewing people and shooting footage for the news. The news broadcast was seen by approximately one million Finnish viewers.

The exhibition was later visited by Vice-President of the European Parliament Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott who saw the exhibition on the news and decided to go and see it. He had recently met with Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing and heard about the human rights abuses that they encountered, including the harvesting of organs. Before he left, he left a note in the guest book reading, "China's regime is still a brutal, arbitrary, paranoid system."

Mr McMillan-Scott chose to have his picture taken next to the painting "Tragedy in China"

In the exhibition there was a possibility for a guided tour to get more specific information about the art works as well as the thoughts of the artists. In its entirety the exhibition was a touching portrayal of the lives of today's Chinese whose firm belief that the Chinese Communist dictatorship hasn't been able to sway with its state terror. Uncompromising courage, as in the name of the second part of the exhibition, would definitely be the an appropriate description for Falun Gong practitioner's nature in China.