Greece: Press Conference following the Lawsuit Launched in Athens

On August 5th 2004, European and Greek Falun Dafa Associations in conjunction with International Advocates for Justice (IAFJ), sponsored a press conference to celebrate the Olympic ideal, enshrined in the wisdom of Socrates, Lao Tze and many others. As articulated in the poetry of Pindar, the Olympic spirit is best expressed as harmony between the Olympic athlete, nature and the gods. The Olympic victors were not merely physically fit athletes, but also spiritually sound in mind, heart and spirit. The similarity between the Olympic spirit of balance and harmony and the principles of Falun Dafa were but one of the many themes articulated by a panel of seven, which included, Falun Dafa Association spokespersons Wu Wenxin and Peter Jauhal, Attorneys Nikos Livos, Stavros Tsakyrakis, and Terri Marsh, as well Falun Gong practitioners Zhao Ming, Jane Dai, and Chris Cominos.

As Peter Jahaul, the moderator of the panel, noted, Greece is best known as the cradle of western thought and civilization, as manifest in its architecture, sculpture, drama, philosophy, science and history. As Attorney Terri Marsh noted, the Olympic spirit has been well preserved in Greece, as evidenced by the respect shown at the 2004 Greek Olympic Games for religious freedom and diversity of religious belief.

However, as Attorney Stavros Tsakyrakis, among others, noted, under the Jiang regime, China has not respected the religious freedom of its citizens, be they Tibetans, Catholics or practitioners of Falun Gong. As the co-drafter of a landmark criminal case filed with the D.A. office that very morning, Attorney Tsakyrakis noted that the criminal complaint is based not on allegations, but on fact. As noted by the third party reports, also included as exhibits in the filed complaint, the persecution of Falun Gong in China is a fact, Tsakyrakis told an audience of newspaper and magazine journalists, seated together in the elegant Athens Hotel. As the United Nations Reports, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports disclose, thousands upon thousands of persons have been tortured for their belief in the principles and practice of Falun Gong in China.

While no one has yet been held accountable for such crimes in China, the complaint filed in Athens charged the founder of the persecution, Mr. Jiang as well as his accomplices, Luo Gan, and Li Lanqing (and several unnamed Chinese principals) with torture and cruel and inhuman treatment. Attorney Livos, co-drafter of the complaint and one of the most renowned criminal attorneys in Greece, characterized the case as a landmark case, a first of its kind, in which Greek citizens tortured in China are asking a Greek court to hold the perpetrators accountable under a Greek criminal statute that prohibits torture.

The severity of the persecution was underscored by Zhao Ming, as he described the incessant brutal methods of torture deployed by the police, and other security personnel. A video of the torture exhibit displayed in Chicago during the seventh Circuit Jiang Zemin appeal, played in the background, as Zhao Ming reminded the audience of the gruesome realities of the persecution. That such inhumanities continue is unacceptable, Mr Ming stated as he urged the audience to report the news of the persecution to the rest of the world. Jane Dai reinforced Zhao Ming’s message as she and her daughter told the journalists of the extrajudicial killing of her husband, for no other reason, than his insistence on his and others’ rights to freedom of belief and conscience in China.

Attorney Marsh, also a professor of Greek Poetry and Philosophy, noted that many wise men, including the Greek historian Thucydides noted that when men are not persuaded by polite conversation to desist in their killing and torture of their fellow men, we are of course compelled by moral principle to turn to a court of law for a just and equitable resolution of the situation.

Chris Cominos, a Falun Dafa practitioner and Greek citizen, who went to Tiananmen Square to appeal to the government and people of China against the treatment of Falun Gong in China, concluded the panel presentation by a return to the Olympic theme when he stated that we can only hope that when Greece passes the Olympic torch to China in 2008, it is to a China free of religious oppression. Or, as stated by Chris Cominos and Terri Marsh, to China proper, a China which is true to its original self.