Nov 13, 2003 TAIPEI, Taiwan

Six Taiwanese Falun Gong followers plan to file a lawsuit in Taiwan accusing former Chinese President Jiang Zemin of persecuting them and aiming to wipe out the popular spiritual movement in China, a member said on Thursday.

The Taiwanese had been detained when traveling in China during the past two years, and they plan to file the lawsuit in Taiwan's High Court on Monday, citing a Taiwanese law for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide, said Chu Wan-chi, a spokeswoman of Falun Gong's Taiwan branch.

"They were victims of China's genocidal act that attempts to wipe out part or all of the spiritual group," Chu told The Associated Press.

[...]

The former Chinese leader would likely ignore a subpoena to appear in court. But filing the lawsuit would still highlight the brutality of the crackdown on Falun Gong, Chu said.

Over the past two years, Falun Gong followers around the world have filed at least a dozen lawsuits in foreign courts against Jiang and other Chinese officials they accuse of rights abuses. As head of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang was responsible for the crackdown, they alleged.

Taiwanese have frequently rendered support to Falun Gong practitioners in China. Beijing has barred many Falun Gong followers from the mainland and has accused Taiwanese [...] of breaking into TV broadcasts on the mainland earlier this year.

[...]

Falun Gong alleges the Chinese government has detained and mistreated thousands of followers and killed hundreds through torture or abuse. [...]