(Minghui.org) A total of 136 Falun Gong practitioners from Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and over 200 from Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province have filed criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin between May 24 and Sept 23, 2015, according to reports compiled by the Minghui website.

The practitioners charge the former Chinese dictator with initiating the brutal suppression of Falun Gong and hold him responsible for the tremendous suffering inflicted upon them by his campaign. The criminal complaints were mailed to the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Many of these practitioners recounted how Falun Gong returned them to health and gave them a new outlook on life. Their dream to live a healthier and happier life, however, was shattered when Jiang Zemin launched a nationwide campaign to eradicate the practice in 1999.

Simply for refusing to give up their belief, they were arrested, detained, tortured, and had their homes ransacked and personal belongings seized by the communist authorities. Many also saw their families implicated for their belief, while some were also forced to pay huge fines.

Below, we profile a few of these practitioners:

Ms. Ge Xiuyun (葛秀芸), 77, is a retiree from Wuxi. She was detained multiple times. Her daughter Dai Lijuan (戴礼娟) passed away in 2011, as a result of torture and injections of unknown drugs. Ms. Dai has been paralyzed and incontinent since 2003.

Ms. Gu Modi (顾末娣), 67 from Wuxi was arrested and detained over 10 times. She was forcibly put into the forced labor camp in 2005, despite her poor health caused by torture. She was recently detained for five days for suing Jiang Zemin.

Ms. Dai Xianglan (戴相兰), 67, is a retired welder. She was arrested multiple times, and held at detention centers and brainwashing centers. She was not allowed to go to the toilet, deprived of sleep, injected with unknown drugs, and tortured. Her body turned black and purple, and her black hair turned white.

Ms. Liang Aiying (梁爱英), 61, is a retired director from the Political and Security Office in Wuxi. She was given five years of forced labor in 2001, and then two more years in 2012. She was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007. She was tortured on the tiger bench, shocked with electric batons, and injected with unknown drugs. Her husband passed away while she was imprisoned.

Ms. Yi Shuzhen (易淑珍), 74, is a retired martial arts instructor from Yinchuan. She was arrested three times, as well as imprisoned in a forced labor camp, detention center and brainwashing center for more than five years. She was tortured, and had to perform manual labor for over 12 hours a day. Toxic products caused swelling and infection.

Ms. Zhang Xiaochun (张晓春), 54, is a deputy chief physician from Yinchuan. She was given three years of forced labor in 2011, and forced to sit on a small stool from morning to midnight. Long term torment caused rapid heart beat, insomnia and other illnesses.

Ms. Yang Lian (杨莲), 67, was imprisoned in the Yinchuan Women's Forced Labor Camp on fabricated charges in 2002.

Mr. Zhao Lin (赵林), 48, is a quality inspector. He was given one year of forced labor in 2006, which was followed by five years of imprisonment. He was monitored by four prisoners, exposed to the hot sun for days, and beaten.

Mr. Xie Yiqiang (谢毅强), 51, engineerMr. Wang Yuzhu (王玉柱), 49, electrical engineer

Background

In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.

The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners in the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.

Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.

Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.