Falun Gong Spokesperson in Iceland Plans to Press Charges over Phone Harassment

Thordis Hauksdottir, the spokesperson for Falun Gong in Iceland, has contacted the police and intends to press charges for repeated tape-recorded phone calls to her number playing propaganda against Falun Gong. Thordis says that this propaganda was in English and Chinese.

According to Thordis, many Falun Gong practitioners all over the world have been harassed in this way, although she does not know of any other Icelanders. She says there is already a police investigation on the matter in the U.S., but the agitators' trail is carefully hidden and so far it has not been traced.

"These phone calls are unacceptable, and spoil the sanctity of one's private life. Iceland is a free democratic country, and to me it is not to be acceptable to be subjected to such attacks from a foreign power," said Thordis, who intends to request a police investigation. She thinks Chinese authorities are responsible for the harassment, because since the practitioners' protest of Chinese president Jiang Zemin's visit to this country, she has spoken publicly about her practice.

Omar Smari Armannsson, deputy chief constable in Reykjavik, said that it is best for those who receive repeated harassing phone calls to contact their phone companies, have the phone messages put on file, and then press charges at the police station.