En Route to Protest Persecution in China, Falun Gong Practitioners Removed from Belgrade Ahead of CEE-China Summit in Serbia

(Minghui.org) Eleven Falun Gong practitioners were forcibly removed from Belgrade either from their hotels or from the airport during December 14 and 15, before the CEE-China summit in Serbia was held on the 16th.

They were all on their way to protest the persecution of Falun Gong in China and sought to expose the state-sanctioned killing of prisoners of conscience for their organs. The majority of the victims are Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned for their beliefs.

Human Rights organization Yukom in Serbia has issued a statement condemning these human rights abuses. The Serbian law office Markovic and Partners is representing Falun Gong practitioners in taking immediate legal action.

Local police took away nine practitioners, including seven Bulgarian and two Russian citizens, at Big Hostel in Belgrade at about 10:00 pm local time on Sunday. For the next 17 hours, police in Belgrade denied that they were detained.

However, according to information received from the Bulgarian Embassy in Belgrade, they were kept in detention outside Belgrade. As of Tuesday, December 16, they were still detained.

A Slovakian citizen and a Finnish citizen were deported from the Belgrade Airport on Monday night.

The Finnish citizen, Ms. Lan Lihua, was born in China and settled in Finland as a United Nations Refugee after escaping brutal persecution in China.

Falun Gong practitioners in different European countries call on the Serbian authorities to respect fundamental human rights and immediately release the detained practitioners.