Media Report on French Legal System's Unprecedented Request for Chinese Government's Cooperation on the Lawsuit against Chinese Senior Officials

Recently, French Lawyer William Bourdon, through the French Justice System, has sent China a request to investigate the role of former Chinese Vice-Premier Li Lanqing and current Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng in the persecution of Falun Gong. The European Chinese media outlet, European Daily carried a report on this progress on the front page of its weekend edition. The article was entitled, "For the First Time - Falun Gong Sues Former Chinese Leader and French Judge Requests China to Cooperate."

The European Daily highlighted this case in its weekend edition

The report said: According to lawyer William Bourdon who is representing Falun Gong practitioners, the lawsuit filed by practitioners against former Chinese Vice-Premier Li Lanqing just made a big breakthrough. The French justice system has sent an International Rogatory Letter to China asking for an investigation. Under the agreements on judiciary collaboration between France and China, the Chinese government in theory can't ignore this request. This is the first ever request from Europe to China asking for judiciary collaboration. Bourdon said that he submitted the complaints against Li Lanqing in December 2002, charging Li for persecuting and maltreating Falun Gong practitioners. The major progress in this case is that the French Felony Court has requested China to investigate the charges. Under the judiciary collaboration agreements between the two nations, the Chinese government must launch an investigation.

Bourdon said that this international judiciary collaboration has special symbolic and historic meaning and it is the first ever case in France as well as in Europe to request China to provide judiciary collaboration. The reason practitioners sued Li Lanqing is that Li was the head of the 610 Office, an agency established to monitor, suppress and persecute Falun Gong practitioners. (Central News Agency, Luo Yuanshao reported on December 16 from Paris)

The judiciary collaboration request from the French justice system means that those people who have persecuted practitioners are to be brought to justice.