On March 14 of this year, sixteen Falun Gong practitioners, including four Swiss citizens, were violently dragged away by the Hong Kong police while conducting a peaceful appeal on the sidewalk outside the Chinese Liaison Office building. They were subsequently charged by the Hong Kong police with "obstructing traffic" and "assaulting the police." The so-called charges of "obstructing traffic" and "assaulting the police" by the Hong Kong authorities are groundless, because video footage of the event clearly shows it was the police that were obstructing traffic and assaulting the practitioners, not the other way around. During the trial, the judge often spoke from the same perspective as the prosecutor, and the court's decisions were obviously biased. All the evidence has shown that this trial is purely a political persecution caused by the Jiang regime's persecution of Falun Gong. The Hong Kong government bent to the Jiang regime's pressure, ignored the "One country, two systems" principle, ignored Hong Kong's human rights and spirit of justice system and brought Jiang's tyranny into Hong Kong to persecute innocent Falun Gong practitioners. The Hong Kong government's conduct has deeply hurt Hong Kong itself. We are concerned whether Hong Kong can retain its status as a free society, which guarantees the prosperity of its economy and culture. We are upset that Hong Kong police ignored all the facts and used excessive force to arrest peaceful Falun Gong practitioners and then fabricated a case to frame Falun Gong practitioners which has essentially extended Jiang's brutal persecution into Hong Kong.
Between 12 and 1 p.m., August 5, a news conference was held in front of the Chinese Consulate in Houston calling upon the Hong Kong government to stop the political trial. A practitioner read her statement as an eyewitness given in Hong Kong court on July 2. We expressed our support of these 16 practitioners; we appealed to theinternational community, news media and people of all walks of lives to offer their moral support to stop the baseless trial and political persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and support Hong Kong Falun Gong practitioners' legal right of freedom of belief, expression and assembly.
A candlelight vigil was held afterward from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
