On November the 15th 2004, six Canadian Falun Gong practitioners formally filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Ontario against China's former General Secretary Jiang Zemin and four other high-ranking officials, requesting 20 million Canadian dollars in compensation. The other four officials are Li Lanqing, Luo Gan, Liu Jing, and Wang Maolin. These are the people primarily responsible for the 610 Office, whose sole purpose is to persecute Falun Gong.
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| He Zhili reunites with his wife in Toronto after being jailed for three and a half years |
He Zhili, one of the plaintiffs, is a senior engineer and a China Outstanding Engineering Award winner. He was jailed in China for three years and six months simply because he practised Falun Gong. He was released on January 20, 2004 and reunited with his wife in Toronto on May 20, 2004.
When asked why he wanted to sue Jiang Zemin in Canada, he said, "The physical damage will mend, but the mental damage is so deep and lasting. Even today, it is very difficult to forget that period of painful torture. We hope that those criminals leading the persecution of Falun Gong will be brought to justice in a Canadian court and receive a fair trial, and that justice will be served for the thousands of Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted in China. We hope to reveal the truth, and let the Chinese people see the truth that is obscured by the deceitful propaganda."
Twice Jailed for Belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance"
Mr. He and his wife started practising Falun Gong in 1995. On July 20, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Gong began, Falun Gong practitioners' living and working environments were monitored, and their phones tapped. He Zhili was jailed two times.
The first time, he had gone to Tiananmen Square to look for his wife, who in turn had gone to see the People's Representatives to hand in a letter explaining the truth of Falun Gong. A plain-clothes policeman asked him if he practised Falun Gong, and he answered "yes." Immediately, he was detained 15 days for "disturbing social order."
The second time He Zhili was jailed was on July 21, 2000. He mailed some information about Falun Gong to a friend. Agents from the National Security Bureau arrested him at his workplace, and ransacked his house. He was detained in Beijing Haidian District Temporary Detention Centre for 35 days, and was subjected to torture and humiliation.
Jailed for over Three Years for Mailing Material Exposing the Truth
On August 25, 2000 Police from Haidian District Temporary Detention Centre formally arrested him and took him to the Beijing City Police Detention Centre. At that time, he had on only a short-sleeved shirt and short pants, and no shoes. He was jailed with death-row criminals. Harsh brainwashing and torture made him severely depressed and scared. The wardens appointed four criminal inmates to monitor him. They forced him to sit on a hard stool for over ten hours a day without moving or relaxing. From time to time, he was beaten up, and punished by being forced to stand outside in the cold for long periods. The long-term sitting torture made his skin ulcerate severely, and pus and blood dried and stuck to his clothes. Because of this, he developed a scabies infection, and pustules broke out all over his body. He got weaker and weaker, and suffered from high fever, coma, and difficulty breathing.
On December 15, 2004, the Beijing Haidian District Court sentenced him to prison for three and a half years. He appealed, but since he is a Falun Gong practitioner, the decision he received was "Reject petition, the previous charges stand."
Before he was transferred to the prison, the guards of detention centre forced him to sign a questionnaire. The document declared, "During the stay in detention centre, I was treated well, without mistreatment, and received good medical attention." These documents are used to deceive people and to cover the authorities' crimes.
Mental and Physical Torture in Jail
On February 14, 2001, in a half-sleep, half-coma, high-fever condition, He Zhili was transferred to prison, where he was forced to watch videos defaming Falun Dafa and deprived of sleep for long periods. Policemen interrogated him, one after another, and beat him. In cold winter weather he was forced to stand in the chilly wind while guards poured cold water on him, and he was shocked with high voltage electric batons. Soon he was coughing blood, urinating blood, and had other urination disorders. Recently, while talking about the electric shocks, Zhili said, "Even now, when I see the electric flash of welding, or hear a similar sound, my heart palpitates." In prison, he was forced to work over ten hours a day with very little food. Often he was tortured to the point of feeling dizzy and having heart palpitations. He lived close to death every day.
Damage from the torture persists to today. Zhili says, "Sometimes I am afraid of hearing people call my name. My name was called numerous times in the prison, and whenever I was called I became nervous. It's hard to imagine how the calling of one's name can have this effect, but my memory of torture experienced in the Chinese prisons is still affecting my life now."
The intent of all the tortures in the prison was to destroy Falun Gong practitioners' belief in Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.
The Persecution, Based on Lies, Fears the Truth
Jiang ordered this bloody persecution of his own will. Up to today, at least 1227 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death, over 6000 illegally jailed, more than 100,000 sentenced to forced labour camps, and another several thousand practitioners detained in mental hospitals, receiving nerve-damaging drugs. Countless practitioners were abducted and taken to local brainwashing classes, beaten up, and had money extorted from them by the police. The persecution has consumed a huge amount of the country's resources.
The 610 Office is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems. It is the control centre through which Jiang Zemin persecutes Falun Gong, and functions like the "Gestapo" of Germany in WWII.
He Zhili was jailed for three and a half years because he mailed truth-clarification materials to others. This persecution is based on lies, so the Jiang regime's greatest fear is people knowing the truth. Zhili believes that the overseas lawsuits will not only bring Jiang and other criminals to justice, but also expose the lies that Jiang's regime fabricated to strengthen its persecution, and thus let people see the truth and have a chance to stand on the right side of justice.
Canadian Court Will Hopefully Bring the Prime Criminals of the Persecution to Justice
Jiang and his followers have been sued in over 20 countries and regions. In addition, in January 2004, the Canadian Royal Mounted Police put a total of 45 Chinese communist, high-ranking officials, including Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, and Li Lanqing on a surveillance list. In one recent case, former Beijing Mayor Liu Qi was found guilty by a US Federal Court in San Francisco. The overseas lawsuits frighten Jiang and his accomplices and limit their ability to persecute Falun Gong openly. Their persecution is now more covert, as they fear that their actions will be exposed to the world.
Though He Zhili now lives in Canada, a land of freedom, he didn't totally escape from the shadow of painful memories of torture and damage. "My memory of tortures in the prison still shadows my life. In China, thousands of practitioners are still living in such an inhuman environment. They can't request justice from the courts. I am now suing Jiang in an Ontario Court, and I hope this Canadian Court can uphold justice for all Falun Gong practitioners." he told the reporter.
Some people questioned if his actions were involved with politics. He said that practitioners don't care about politics. Falun Gong has clear teachings about this. For example, if a government official killed your family member, you would expose his crime and sue him in court. Are you involved in politics? Obviously not. Jiang and his followers have killed so many people, so shouldn't we sue these criminals in court? Falun Gong has no political agenda and we don't become involved in politics.
Some people said that Jiang's regime claimed that the lawsuit against Jiang was "Anti-China." He answered that the persecution was illegal. It violates Chinese Law. Jiang put himself above the Constitution and the judiciary system. This violates the law. All actions of the persecution are illegal and violate the Chinese Constitution and Criminal Law. As for the 610 Office, it has no legal base for its establishment or its existence. Exposing the evil and bringing Jiang's and his followers to justice is beneficial to China.
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