Tue Aug 6, 2002

HONG KONG - Final arguments began Tuesday in Hong Kong's first criminal case against members of the Falun Gong meditation [group].

The trial of 16 Falun Gong members -- including four Swiss -- who are charged with public obstruction, has raised worries that Hong Kong is curbing human rights and clamping down on the [group], which is banned in mainland China but allowed here.

The Falun Gong members were arrested during a March 14 protest outside the Chinese government liaison office. The Swiss had been refused entry to mainland China and joined the Hong Kong demonstration instead.

[...]

The trial was due to continue with the defense's final summation on Wednesday.

Local Falun Gong members attending the trial said they would not comment until it ended.

But the case is attracting strong interest from Falun Gong members outside Hong Kong, who have [contacted] news organizations here with phone calls and faxes condemning the local government for the trial.

"We are appalled at the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong and at the way this trial has been carried out," said a statement from a group called Friends of Falun Gong USA that urged Hong Kong's judiciary to abandon the trial.

Chinese authorities banned Falun Gong on July 22, 1999, [...] Thousands of followers have been sent to labor camps.

Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule five years ago, but the territory still enjoys many Western-style freedoms such as free speech.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020806/ap_wo_en_po/ho ng_kong_falun_gong_2