(Minghui.org) From May 2015 to May 2016, 1,221 residents in Ningxiang County, Hunan Province have either filed criminal complaints against or reported crimes committed by former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin.
They called for the former dictator to be brought to justice for launching the persecution of Falun Gong, which has resulted in irreparable damage to countless practitioners and their families. They also requested the unconditional release of all Falun Gong practitioners who are still incarcerated.
Among the 1,221 Ningxiang residents, 325 are Falun Gong practitioners who have been directly affected by the persecution. Many are suing Jiang for illegal arrest and torture because of their refusal to renounce their faith.
The other 896 people are not Falun Gong practitioners, but they are voicing their support of practitioners by reporting Jiang’s crimes via the online portals of the Supreme Court and Supreme Procuratorate.
Ms. Li Aizhen's husband, Mr. Peng Wenchao, went to Beijing in December 2000 to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong and was arrested. Police officers used iron clubs to strike him and poured sulfuric acid on his neck, severely burning his neck and back.
Mr. Peng was later taken back to his hometown. The 610 Office of Zifu Township, Ningxiang County, and the local police station hired over 60 thugs to ransack his house. They confiscated all the grain the family had harvested from their 10-acre farm field.
In addition, they took the family’s electric fan, a sewing machine, a motor, two pigs, and many other personal belongings. Ms. Li was arrested and wasn't released until her family paid 3,000 yuan.
The Zifu Township 610 Office, the local police station, and personnel from other government offices often went to the couple’s house to search, harass, and threaten them and their family. Mr. Peng was again detained for ten days for hanging a banner inside their own home with the words “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.”
The couple were arrested again in 2004, their house ransacked, and more personal items taken. The police punched and kicked Mr. Peng and Ms. Li before cuffing their hands behind their backs. Ms. Li was detained in the local police station for 15 days, but Mr. Peng was given one year of forced labor. He was subjected to brutal tortures and died soon after he was sent home in 2007.
Ms. Tan Juanyun has been incarcerated four times and subjected to forced labor once. All her valuables, including a desk, a bicycle, a TV set, a pig, and about 880 pounds of grain were confiscated by police.
She was once arrested as soon as she arrived at the train station on her way to Beijing, and was sent back to the local police station in Ningxiang County.
The police officers took turns slapping her face. They hung her up with her hands cuffed behind her back and stuffed her mouth with dirty socks.
Ms. Tan was given one year of forced labor and suffered brutal torture at Baimalong Forced Labor Camp in Zhuzhou.
During the winter months, she was forced to stand in her bare feet for three days on an unheated cement floor. She was not allowed to sleep, use the bathroom facilities, or eat during that time.
After that, the guards had criminal inmates beat and kick Ms. Tan, and shock her with electric batons. She was often starved for three to five days in a row. Once she was not given any food for 19 consecutive days.
Ms. Wang Meiling, 53, spent one year in a labor camp for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. In addition, she was incarcerated three times at the Ningxiang County Lockup and twice at the Ningxiang County Detention Center. On two other occasions she was held at local brainwashing centers.
Ms. Wang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in 2001, but was arrested and detained in the Ningxiang County Lockup for six months. She was given very little to eat each day because her family could not afford to pay for room and board in the detention facility.
As a result of an extended period of time of poor nutrition, Ms. Wang suffered extreme weight loss, vomited everything she ate, and even vomited blood. Three months later, she could not eat anything at all.
Ms. Wang was still not released, even though she was too fragile to move and was bedridden. The 610 Office transferred her to the brainwashing center in the Ningxiang County School of Political Studies, before taking her back to the Ningxiang County Lockup. They only released her when it became obvious that she was on the verge of death.
Ms. Song Youe was incarcerated three times in the Ningxiang County Lockup, and her house was ransacked. She was held in the Ningxiang County School of Political Studies for brainwashing.
In December 2000, Ms. Song was arrested for appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing, and taken to the local police station, where the officers shocked her with electric batons and severely burned her hands.
She was later incarcerated in the Ningxiang County Lockup where she was brutally tortured. Guards pushed her down and then kicked her and slapped her face until she fainted.
Just hours after she was released from the lockup, the police descended upon her house and arrested her again.
They took almost all she owned: more than 3,700 jin of grain, over 200 jin of seed, all her rice, a water pump, an electric motor, a pump, her iron gate, five chairs, 173 chickens, a set of stereos, three tape recorders, a voicemail machine, an electric fan, set of tools to fix cars, a power drill, hand saw, a charger, an antique sword, and many other personal items.
After that, they detained her in the county lockup for 39 days, and then in a brainwashing center for over a month.
Ms. Li Rong is a retired school teacher. She was given forced labor twice for a total of five years.
One evening, she sat in meditation on her bed in the labor camp. Two prisoners dragged her off the bed, struck her head, and kicked her. One drug addict, who had been incarcerated eight times, was particularly cruel towards Ms. Li because she wanted to get her term reduced.
Another time the guards pried Ms. Li’s mouth open, stuffed a cleaning mop inside her mouth, and hung her up from the ceiling. Later, they locked her up in solitary confinement.
The solitary confinement cell was damp and dark. It had two doors with no vent. It smelled filthy. Many people had died in that room. Ms. Li was not given any water and she was allowed only one steamed bun a day. In the evenings, guards gave her one dirty blanket, but during the day, she had no place to rest and could only sit on the cement floor. She was locked up in there for 12 days.
After being incarcerated in the forced labor camp for five years, Ms. Li was put under house arrest in a senior center for another five years.
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 over 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 now allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.