(Minghui.org) Ms. Peng Zelan, 64, from Guiyang City has filed a lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, the former dictator of China, for initiating the persecution of Falun Gong and causing her and family great suffering.
She mailed her complaint to the Supreme Procuratorate this past September.
Ms. Peng credits Falun Gong with restoring her health and happiness. She has endured three years of forced labor in 2002 and one year in 2007 for not giving up the practice. She was tortured physically and mentally.
Physical Torture
Ms. Peng was forced to stand facing a wall for several hours when she arrived at the forced labor camp and had her clothes striped off for a “security check.” She was detained in a dark room and monitored around the clock.
When Ms. Peng refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was forced to stand in different positions for long stretches of time every day and deprived of sleep. Other inmates split her legs apart as far as they would go, until she could not bear the pain, and then beat her.
Torture illustration: Splitting the legs
After standing day after day, her legs, feet, and hands swelled up. She could not flex her fingers, and the skin on the soles of her feet cracked and came off in sheets, exposing large area of raw skin and causing intense pain.
She was allotted two restroom breaks every day, one in the morning and one at night. She had to ask for special permission if she needed to go during the day, but the inmates watching her often waited until she was about to explode to seek the guards' approval. She suffered unimaginable discomfort and serious health problems.
She was not allowed to wash her bowl or chopsticks, despite the bugs and dust all around her.
She was not allowed to wash herself or her clothes. The clothes that her family sent were never given to her, and she had to wear the same thing, day in and day out, regardless of the weather. Her clothes became matted with sweat and dirt and made her itch terribly.
Mental Torture
Ms. Peng was forced to read books and watch videos that slandered Falun Gong and was told to write her “understandings” of them. When she refused, she was threatened that she would be left "in the middle of nowhere" and her son would be fired from his job.
Her son had been an outstanding student and had never caused his parents any worry. But his mother's arrest upset him terribly, and he began to drink and smoke and developed a short temper. Despite his excellent work record, he was denied promotions because his mother practiced Falun Gong.
Local officers kept harassing Ms. Peng after her release and told the neighborhood residential committee to monitor her, saying that she was a “bad woman.” Ms. Peng was followed as she took her grandson to childcare in 2014.
She was still being harassed at home in the first half of 2015.
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 during 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.
