The former head of China, Jiang Zemin, could be sued in a Swiss Court for his persecution of Falun Gong under such crimes as torture, crimes against humanity and genocide. While this sounds like a dream, Lawyer Philip Grant, President of the organisation "Track Impunity Always" (TRIAL), confirmed this yesterday. The Swiss lawyer said, “I was given the mandate by several victims of Chinese repression to prepare a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, which will be filed before a competent prosecuting authority here in Switzerland when -- and if -- Jiang Zemin ever sets foot on Swiss territory again.”
Torture and killing
Falun Gong practitioners have been brutally persecuted since the Chinese government banned Falun Gong in July 1999. This persecution has caused the deaths of 630 people. This is an official figure of documented deaths from torture and persecution – the real figure is closer to 2,000. More than 100,000 people have been arrested. More than 1,000 individuals have been forced into mental hospitals. An innumerable number of people have been victims of forced abortion, have lost their jobs, or have been refused access to public services.
According to TRIAL, the former Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party and the former President of the People's Republic of China, Jiang Zemin, was the chief criminal instigator of the persecution and the main instigator in the banning of Falun Gong. He directly ordered or encouraged the commission of such crimes from April 1999. Under his orders, the 610 Office, a sort of Chinese Gestapo, was created in June 1999 [with the sole purpose of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners].
In terms of international law, the deeds of Jiang’s regime outlined above constitute multiple breaches of the United Nations Convention against Torture, which China ratified in October 1988. In addition, the repression of Falun Gong, in relation to its methods and sheer scale (ed. note - before the persecution began there were 100 million practitioners in China), is a crime against humanity. It involves the brutal and horrific persecution, including murder, torture, and rape of a group based on religious grounds [Falun Gong is not a religion, it is a spiritual practice. For more information on the nature of Falun Gong, please click here].
The policy of repression conducted by Jiang Zemin is clearly aimed, as he himself has often claimed, at the destruction of Falun Gong. According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Jiang’s intent to destroy a spiritual group has constituted the commission of the Crime of Genocide.
Jiang Zemin can no longer enjoy diplomatic immunity from his position as China’s head of State, since he has been replaced by a new President. Though he continues as chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Central Military Commission, it does not confer on him any particular immunity under international law.
Chinese version available at http://yuanming.net/articles/200303/18515.html
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