(Clearwisdom.net) On February 17, 2011, the day of the Chinese Lantern Festival, a court of law in the Ukraine issued its decision, allowing the Falun Gong group to hold its activities at the city centre square of Kiev.

The case dated back to May 13, 2010, when the Falun Gong practitioners’ application for the celebration of Falun Dafa Day was rejected because the Chinese Embassy deceived the Ukraine government officials by telling them that the Falun Gong group would hold “dangerous” activities. On that day, the government also sent a large number of police to break up the practitioners’ activities against the persecution in front of the Chinese Embassy. Therefore, the Falun Dafa Association of Ukraine filed an appeal.

On February 17, 2011, when the court pronounced its verdict in favour of the Falun Gong practitioners, a judge said: "You can submit applications for your activities at your discretion any time in the future”. “Don’t worry, they will know what they should do!” added the judge in charge of the case.

Although the appeal process met with difficulties, the judges in charge of the case made the correct decision after learning the facts of the persecution against Falun Gong.

On August 10 2008, Falun Gong practitioners applied for holding truth-clarification activities at a park in the coastal city of Maliwubo. Because there were not many people in the park, the police took the practitioners to the crowded seaside beach after learning the truth.

Background:

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline for mind and body. The practice involves slow, gentle movements and meditation. It is easy to learn, enjoyable to practice, and free of charge. Its guiding principles are based on Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. The practice was first introduced by Master Li Hongzhi in China in 1992 and quickly spread by word of mouth throughout China and then beyond. Its beneficial effects in uplifting an individual's physical health, spiritual well-being, and moral character, not to mention its positive influence in the community and society as a whole, are undeniable. In fact, Falun Gong is practiced by over 100 million people in 110 countries. The main works of Falun Gong are available in over 30 languages.

On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a brutal persecution of Falun Gong.

According to figures from the Minghui/Clearwisdom website, up to now at least 3413 Falun Gong practitioners are confirmed to have been persecuted to death. Experts estimate that the actual figures are much higher. Hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured in prisons, forced labor camps, and psychiatric hospitals. Moreover, the CCP controlled military, public security, judiciary, and health care system have collaborated with each other to harvest organs from living Falun Gong practitioners in one of the most horrendous crimes in human history.

Despite the CCP’s attempt to eradicate the Falun Gong by such means as deceptive propaganda, false arrests on fabricated charges, controlling the media and blockading the internet, brainwashing and killing, for over ten years, practitioners have kept telling the public the truth about the persecution. Through this long ordeal, Falun Gong practitioners’ faith has become even stronger, while more and more governments and people around the world have shown their support.