Malaysia: MP says that the Spanish Court Made a Critical Ruling

Malaysian Member of Parliament Charles Santiago considers the Spanish National Court's decision to charge Jiang Zemin and other four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials for genocide and torture a critical ruling.

Malaysian Member of Parliament Charles Santiago

According to a media report, MP Santiago said that the Spanish court's decision was based on the human rights reports released by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Law Foundation, and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, all authoritative and influential international human rights organizations. He said that the CCP must be held responsible for what it did and make its policies transparent during investigation.

Santiago stressed the significance of human rights. He said that we could hold different opinions, beliefs, and ideas in any corner of the world and that disagreement with a group's ideas or beliefs didn't mean we could kill them or commit genocide, that this was unacceptable.

The Spanish National Court issued a summons. The court's notification stated that if the charges against the defendants are established, they are likely to face imprisonment for up to 20 years and may be economically liable to the victims for damages. If the defendants fail to respond to the court within six weeks, the judge could issue arrest warrants for them.

In 1999, former CCP head Jiang Zemin singlehandedly instigated the campaign to "eradicate" the spiritual practice of Falun Gong. The genocidal policies of "defame their reputations, bankrupt them financially, destroy them physically, and count their deaths due to torture as suicide" resulted in large numbers of practitioners being arrested, tortured, beaten to death, and going missing. Many had their organs harvested while they were still alive for the lucrative organ transplant trade. The other four defendants are all Jiang's staunch followers.

One of the defendants is Luo Gan. Luo oversaw the 610 Office, a nationwide secret police task force that has led the violent campaign. Chinese lawyers have compared the 610 Office to Nazi Germany's Gestapo in its brutality and extra-legal authority.

The other three accused are Bo Xilai, current Party Secretary for Chongqing and former Minister of Commerce; Jia Qinglin, the fourth-highest member of the Party hierarchy; and Wu Guanzheng, head of an internal Party disciplinary committee. The charges against them are based on their proactive advancement of the persecution of Falun Gong when they served as top officials in Liaoning Province, Beijing, and Shandong Province, respectively.