China Culture Minister Sued in France for "Incitement of Massacre and Persecution"

On January the 28th 2004, Four Falun Gong practitioners entrusted a senior French lawyer, Ms. Hauser-Phelizon, with the filing of a lawsuit at the Paris prosecutor's office against the Chinese Minister of Culture, Sun Jiazheng, for "incitement of massacre and persecution." He is currently visiting France.

After submitting the complaint, Ms Hauser-Phelizizon held a press conference in the lobby of the Palais de la Justice. Several media organisations, including AFP, NTDTV, The Epoch Times and the Sound of Hope radio station, came to the scene to report on the event. Some foreign media organisations like the BBC and Reuters also reported the news.

The lawyer said that the submitted complaint accused Mr. Sun of using the media and other cultural means to bring about the “incitement of massacre and persecution" and the “elimination" of Falun Gong practitioners. He had issued the order to destroy all Falun Gong books and audio/video materials, blocked and monitored Falun Gong practitioners’ telephone calls and Internet communications and prevented Chinese people from learning the true facts about Falun Gong from western media. The lawyer also said that, due to Sun’s manipulation, the campaign of defaming Falun Gong has also affected and spread to western media. It made western media have no way of obtaining the correct information about what has happened in China regarding certain incidents and has distorted the facts in many ways. Falun Gong is a cultivation way and aims for inner peace and harmony.

Ms Soufache, a representative of the European Falun Dafa Association, said that the purpose of the lawsuit was not only to expose the facts about the persecution of Falun Gong and bring the former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin and his accomplices to justice, but also to stop this brutal persecution.