Greece: Lawsuit Brought Against Jiang Zemin for Genocide in Greece One Week Before the Olympics

On August the 5th 2004, one week before the Athens Olympics, two Greek lawyers on behalf of three Falun Gong practitioners from Australia, Ireland and Greece submitted a criminal lawsuit against former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, former vice-premier Li Lanqing, and member of Standing Committee of Political Bureau of Communist Party Luo Gan for genocide and torture.

The European Falun Dafa Association announced the news in a press conference. Nearly 30 members of the media attended the press conference. One of the two representing lawyers, well-known human rights lawyer Tsakyrakis pointed out that even though Jiang, Li and Luo didn't personally torture practitioners, Jiang launched the persecution and Li and Luo were heads of the "6-10 office", which is an institution created to execute Jiang's persecution policy. They should be held accountable for the torture of tens of thousands practitioners, and the death of more than one thousand.

Greek lawyers	Plaintiffs	Nearly 30 journalists attended the press conference

The lawsuit is based on Greek Criminal Law, and the sentence can be as high as 20 years in prison. After it abolished dictatorship in 1974, Greece created tough laws to prevent the government from committing crimes of torture.

Ireland resident Zhao Ming is one of the plaintiffs. He recounted his experience in China: For practising Falun Gong, he was abducted and detained for 22 months. During the detention, he was beaten, tortured with high voltage electric shocks and often forced to remain in a squatting position for more than 10 continuous hours.

The other two plaintiffs are Australian citizen Chris, who is originally from Greece, and Greek citizen Francis. They went to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong two years ago, where they were assaulted by Chinese police.

Chris was born in Greece and has practised Falun Gong for more than 5 years. He is very proud of Athens for holding the 2004 Olympics. He said: "Like China, Greece has great ancient culture and moral heritage." He hopes that China would end the inhuman persecution of Falun Gong, uphold the spirit of peace, justice and mutual respect, and take this spirit to the next Olympics in Beijing.

The Chinese Olympic delegation will arrive in Athens on August 8. Once the Greek court formally accepts the case, the defendants will be summoned by Greek authorities if they come to Athens to watch the Olympics.