Philadelphia: Press Conference Calling for the Immediate Release of American Citizen and Falun Gong Practitioner Charles Li (Photos)

(Clearwisdom.net) Sunday June 1, 2003 was the fifth day of Charles Li's hunger strike protest. Charles Li is an American Citizen and Falun Gong practitioner, who was illegally imprisoned in China. To rescue him, greater Philadelphia area Falun Gong practitioners held a press conference at 1:30pm at a famous tourism site, the Liberty Bell. Practitioners demanded the Chinese government to release Charles Li immediately, and to release Ms. Yang Jinfang, the elder sister of Dr. Yang Jingduan (from Jefferson Hospital), and thousands of other practitioners being illegally detained.

Press conference in front of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia

Charles Li, who was sentenced to three years imprisonment after a show trial, is on a hunger strike. Charles protests for three points:

1. Protest for the illegal detention by Chinese government
2. Protest the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners from Chinese government
3. Protest Nanjing Prison officials and Yangzhou city officials illegally withheld his personal books of Falun Gong and Falun Gong documents his fiancée passed to him through American Consul. He further protests that the Chinese government removed eight pages of affidavits he prepared for the American Consulate.

The visitors were very surprised that Chinese government illegally imprisoned an American doctor. Some of them talked to our practitioners for a long time and wanted to learn the exercises. Some stated that they would write to the President Bush and the State Department asking the government to help rescue Charles Li.

In October 2002, during Jiang's visit to America, a group of Falun Gong practitioners sued him, and the "610 office" under his lead, for crimes of genocide, torture and crimes against humanity. Every Falun Gong practitioner can be a plaintiff to this lawsuit and bring this criminal of history to justice. The eight pages of materials removed from Charles' affidavit was about suing Jiang and related officials. The confiscation of the materials again showed that Jiang's Regime was trying all means to interfere with this lawsuit, but the scales of justice cannot be swayed by Jiang's Regime. The criminals will be brought to justice in the end.