Germany: Falun Dafa Practitioners Hold Press Conference Regarding the Lawsuit Against German Police (photos)

A Falun Gong practitioner hosts the press conference	Plaintiffs' attorney states that under Jiang's pressure, German police officers acted inappropriately
A Falun Gong practitioner displays a yellow shirt that Jiang irrationally forced the German authorities to ban during his visit
A Falun Gong practitioner displays a banner with the words, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" that Jiang also demanded to be banned	A practitioner reads an apology letter from the manager of the Adlon Hotel
Zhao Ming recounts his suffering while he was detained in China
After the news conference, practitioners and reporters continue to chat	A reporter from the New Tang Dynasty TV station interviews the plaintiffs' attorney

During Jiang Zemin's state visit to Germany in 2002, Falun Gong practitioners' constitutional rights were infringed upon by German federal agents and the Berlin police. Recently, Falun Gong practitioners from different countries have been planning to file lawsuits against the German federal police's actions, to the administrative courts in Berlin and other areas. The goal of the lawsuits is to establish facts of human rights transgressions against Falun Gong practitioners during Jiang's state visit in Germany in April 2002, so as to prevent such acts in the future.

This is the third time that Jiang has been brought to court in Europe. The two previous lawsuits were because he was afraid of seeing protesters and infringed upon people's rights through local police, which drew indignation from the local people, media and government officials. The lawsuit in 1995 with Amnesty International as the plaintiff and the lawsuit in 1999 which involved several organisations both ended with rulings in favour of the plaintiffs. The United Kingdom police apologised publicly to the plaintiffs. The Bavaria Administrative Court in Germany pointed out in their judgement, "No political or economical interests shall be above the constitution."

Regarding demands made by Jiang during his state visit in Germany last year, on the evening of April 12 2002, German state TV station Channel One (ARD) ran a special report entitled, "Wild Arrogance: Jiang Zemin's Dictatorship On the Soil of Germany." The report said, "Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who is the guest of Germany this week, is an odd character. He is irritated whenever he sees the colour yellow. Yellow is the signature colour of Falun Gong practitioners' shirts. He is irritated because this Communist party member is unable to put up with any opposing views. The more he wants to avoid it, the more he is unable to avoid it. Even though this is Germany, the Chinese authorities are sparing no effort to make sure that their president does not see the things that irritate him. Our Beijing correspondent Stefan Nieman has been used to this for a long time, but this is happening in Germany."

Chinese version available at http://www.yuanming.net/articles/200304/18984.html