The Falun Gong practitioners held an activity this April at the Federal Plaza across from the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois (Epoch Times)
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Epoch Times] On September 29, 2003, Terri Marsh, attorney for the plaintiff Falun Gong practitioners, entrusted a local attorney to deliver the Memorandum of Law regarding the decision made on September 12 by the presiding judge of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois. The court formally signed and accepted the Memorandum of Law on the afternoon of the 29th at 4:15 pm. This file includes 6 sets of materials and provides more information on the persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin, his violations of human rights and other crimes, including corruption. The memorandum asks the court to hold Jiang Zemin responsible for committing genocide against Falun Gong.According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, the new charges are:
Jiang has embezzled large sums of money and taken it overseas through the suppression of Falun Gong;
Jiang has forced into submission members of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, whom Jiang regarded as rivals within the party through the suppression of Falun Gong;
Jiang's decision of persecuting Falun Gong was an act against the advisement of the government and overriding the decision of Politburo members.
The document pointed out that the entire campaign against Falun Gong was personally initiated by Jiang, and forced upon the government of China, the Communist Party, and the people through the "6-10 Office", which was created for that purpose.
The attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit Dr. Terri Marsh said: "Acting against the decision of other members of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo, in June of 1999 Jiang personally sent an internal notice to all Party members, ordering them to collaborate in the persecution of Falun Gong." "Since that time, Jiang has been the driving force behind the persecution, even personally visiting provinces that initially were not active in carrying out his orders to ensure that the entire nation toed the line."
The new court filing argues that it was like during the Cultural Revolution, the persecution of Falun Gong in China was created by one individual to the detriment and harm of the entire country. The filing goes on to say that as a violator of his nation's laws and international norms, Jiang acts not on behalf of the state, but rather as an enemy of the state and the people of China. Attorney Dr. Terri Marsh concludes, "Indeed the entire campaign of persecution has taken place outside of the normal and legally established governmental procedures. This is Jiang's personal campaign." Citing the landmark U.S. lawsuit that set the stage for trying foreign officials for gross human rights violations (Filartiga v Pena-Irala), Dr. Marsh quotes, "the torturer has become C hostis humani generi, an enemy of all mankind."
The legal filing further notes that an earlier decision to grant immunity to Jiang is no different than granting immunity to Hitler, Milosevic, and Stalin for their crimes against humanity. As was the case with Hitler, Milosevic, and Stalin, Jiang's acts of torture and genocide are not subject to immunity because they constitute crimes of the highest order C crimes against humanity C and violate not only international law, but also are in direct violation of the domestic law and Constitution of China.
What will be the outcome?
Falun Gong practitioner Cheng Dan said that this case is still in the district court (lower court), there are many other legal procedures afterwards. Most of the cases like this will have files being sent back and forth and will take a lot of time. Right now we are still at the initial stage. Cheng Dan said, "Nobody thinks that Hitler should be granted immunity. If today Hitler appeared in any country, the people and government in the country will definitely ask to put him on trial because people know a lot about Hitler's crimes. As this lawsuit moves along, people will get to understand more about the crimes Jiang has committed in persecuting Falun Gong, and eventually Jiang will be convicted."
Falun Gong practitioners pointed out that from all the political and economical revolutions in the 50's, the Cultural Revolution in the 60's to the suppression of students in Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989, the highest authority within the Chinese Communist Party has again and again used these political movements to imprint very negative thoughts into the mind of the Chinese society, and cause the morality and conscience of its people to gradually disappear so that the dictator could have more space for his personal gains and do whatever he wanted. Since the suppression began in 1999, Jiang Zemin took advantage of this "crisis" to manipulate the Chinese society through a series of movements of eradicating Falun Gong and suppressing Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. This is a disaster for human morality.
Attention given to the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin rises inside the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The lawsuit against Jiang Zemin in Chicago started in 2002 during Jiang Zemin's visit to Chicago. Eight Falun Gong practitioners from seven different countries and areas filed a lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, who was still the president of China at that time, in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois and charged him with crimes of genocide, torture and against humanity. Besides the lawsuit in the U.S., Jiang Zemin was also charged with the same crimes in Belgium this year.
The Chinese officials have been strictly blocking the information on the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin.
On September 14 of this year, a news item entitled "The U.S. court decided to dismiss the false charges against Chinese leaders" was released unexpectedly on the website of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the major Chinese websites copied the news without any changes. This was the first time that Chinese officials admitted that several Chinese leaders including Jiang Zemin were charged with persecuting Falun Gong in a foreign court. Because the report from the Chinese officials came out of nowhere, not mentioning who were charged and what crimes were alleged, it led to a lot of people wanting to know more details. There was a huge discussion on the internet and drew tremendous attention from the Chinese people. News of the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin spread out so fast that it is now widely known among the people.
Soon after that, all major news networks in China stopped reporting the lawsuit against Jiang abruptly, and some of the discussions and criticisms from Internet activists were deleted. Some observers said that it might be because the Chinese officials realized their folly. Lin Baohua, a columnist on international issues, wrote a piece on the Chinese Epoch Times website, pointing out that what the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did may look like it was protecting Jiang, but it was actually exposed what happened to the Chinese people.
The comments from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated a new series of reports from the Western media and the Chinese media overseas. The Associated Press reported on September 26 that the lawsuit was a new way to raise awareness of the persecution against Falun Gong. The report pointed out that even though the lawsuit was dismissed, Falun Gong would still win in terms of public opinion. The report quoted Dr. Michael Davis, a professor in the Department of Law and Government Administration in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, "This is a very good strategy. Win or lose, you can get the public to pay attention to your business. In both cases you can condemn and humiliate the accused."
It was reported that China exerted enormous diplomatic pressure, forcing the lawsuit to be dismissed. The report pointed out that Falun Gong has won several lawsuits against the lower level Chinese officials. The U.S. judge ruled that these officials do not have immunity, and the judge found them guilty of crimes of violating human rights.
