Korea: Practitioners Continue Their Appeal in the Lawsuit against Jiang

On December 26, 2003, Korean Falun Gong practitioners filed a lawsuit with local procurator's office in Seoul to charge former Chinese president Jiang Zemin who initiated the persecution of Falun Gong with crimes of "genocide," "special imprisonment" and other crimes. The judge in charge of this case made a non-prosecution decision on January 30, 2004 with the reasons that there is no related stipulation on penalty for "genocide" in the country's laws and that "evidence is not sufficient" for "special imprisonment." Thereby, as plaintiff, Korean Falun Gong practitioners wrote separate appeal letters for the crimes of "special imprisonment" and "genocide." On February 26, 2004, Seoul Central Local Procurator's Office accepted their appeals.

Submitting the appeal letter	Document for accepting the appeal

Korean Falun Gong practitioners expressed that while they visited Macao, Mainland China and Hong Kong to clarify the truth about Falun Gong, they were unlawfully arrested, detained, and expatriated after forcible investigation. Therefore, they have sufficient reasons to prove that Jiang's group has committed crimes against Korean laws: that is, violent arrest and imprisonment, special arrest and incarceration, coercion, impeding operations and robbery.

Looking from the ruling jurisdiction, item No. 6 in the Korean Constitution stipulates: even if outside the territory of the Republic of Korea, when foreigners committed crimes against Korean nationals, the Korean laws will have the same effect on the person. Therefore, Korea certainly has the jurisdiction over defendants' conduct, and the defendants should certainly be restricted and punished according to the Korean criminal law.

As for if the charge of abetment is established, Falun Gong practitioners said, "At that time, the defendant Jiang Zemin was the highest leader--Chinese president, Luo Gan was the head director of '610 Office' that was specially set up to persecute Falun Gong by overriding the laws." The defendants are initiators and commander-in-chief for the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Police officers arrested, incarcerated, and expatriated prosecutors, because they were abetted by Jiang and other defendants. This means that crimes of special imprisonment and crime of abetting against defendants can be tenable.

As for genocide, the procurator-in-charge made a decision of declining the punishment, with the reason that there is no related stipulation in the country's laws and regulations.

As plaintiff, Falun Gong practitioners considered this does not conform to the conduct of "Genocide Agreement" that Korea joined in 1951 and the Korean Constitution.

The practitioners finally expressed that they hoped the public prosecutor would conduct a just and accurate investigation, and expose the crimes of defendants to the public. In order to be able to bring Jiang Zemin to justice, all Korean Falun Gong practitioners will try all means possible including making a legislative appeal to the parliament according to the fifth item in "Genocide Agreement," that is, signatory states will have to pledge to make related legislation to prevent the crime of genocide. The practitioners will whole-heartedly try their best until the end.