Background Information about the First Lawsuit Filed against Jiang Zemin in Beijing

The truth and the circumstances surrounding the Falun Gong plaintiffs in the first lawsuit brought against Jiang Zemin have been revealed after over four years. As reported by Minghui Net (Chinese version of the Falun Gong website, Clearwisdom.net) on January 3rd, 2005, two Falun Gong practitioners sent out their appeal in August of 2000 to the highest Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China in Beijing to sue Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, and Zeng Qinghong for illegally banning and suppressing Falun Gong. Supporters and people close to the case have disclosed to Minghui Net that after the appeal reached the highest Procuratorate through registered mail, the respondents, Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan, personally issued orders to arrest the plaintiffs. Their arrest in Beijing occurred two weeks after they sent out the appeal. Wang Jie, a Beijing resident, was tortured to death in 2001. Zhu Keming, a Hong Kong resident, was secretly sentenced to five years in prison and has been detained in Tianjin's Chadian Prison.

Jiang's Regime Tramples on the Dignity of the Law and Implements Systematic Persecution

Countless facts have proved that Jiang's regime has used the legal system in China to continuously implement the persecution of Falun Gong. Practitioners are deprived of their most basic rights such as free speech, and are not permitted to use the law to defend their own rights.

1. Issues Official Sealed Documents to Direct the Persecution

At the onset of the persecution, the "ban" declared by the Ministry of Civil Administration and the "Six Prohibitions" (1) as stated by the Ministry of Public Security were against the Chinese Constitution and the "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights" of the United Nations, which China had signed in 1998. However, such official sealed documents became the "legal" foundation for the attempt to eradicate a group of good people who believe in and practise Truth-Compassion-Forbearance.

Looking at the persecution over the past five years, Jiang's regime and the 6-10 Office (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) at various levels have used these unlawful administrative documents and secret orders to direct and carry out the persecution. Mike Jendrzejczyk, director of Asia Department of Human Rights Watch in Washington, once commented, "Even when they cover the persecution with an outer garment of 'acting according to the law,' they are still unable to make the suppression rational and legal."

2. Declare Legitimacy, then Enact a "Law"

Jiang Zemin illegally established the status of Falun Gong when he visited France. In an interviewed with Le Figaro, he used the foreign media to defame the practice, which paved way to enact a law. In order to establish Jiang's opinion of Falun Gong as law and give it a veneer of legitimacy, on October 1999, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) passed a document called" A Decision to Ban Cult Organisations, Keep Away and Punish Cult Activities." On the same day, all major media publicised the" definition" given by the Supreme Court and Supreme Procuratorate. However, neither the" decision" as announced by the National People's Congress nor the" definition" defined by the Supreme Court and Supreme Procuratorate designated Falun Gong as such an organisation, nor did they point out that" undertaking Falun Gong activities is a crime." According to legal experts, in the past five years, the decision of People's Congress, the "definition" of cult as defined by the Supreme Court and Supreme Procuratorate, and the corresponding Article 300 of the "Criminal Law" have been unjustly imposed on Falun Gong practitioners. The reason for doing this is to intentionally hide the nature of the crimes committed against practitioners and to inappropriately implement what appears to be "legal" punishment on all members of a specially targeted group. From this perspective, various so-called 'lawful' punishments of Falun Gong practitioners in the past five years constitute what are referred to as "illegal punishment" in the Constitution. An article in the Washington Post on November 12th, 1999 pointed out that when leaders of the Chinese Communist Party discover that there isn't one existing law that can allow them to forcefully suppress a peaceful group, this political party then orders the enactment of new laws. Then, these newly enacted laws are used to punish actions that took place before such laws were enacted."

3. Abuse the Law and Implement Political Persecution

On August 6th, 1999 before the Supreme Court and Supreme Procuratorate passed the cult "definition," Liu Jia Chen, deputy director of the Supreme Court, spoke at the symposia attended by high court directors from all over the country and claimed that the struggle between (CCP) and Falun Gong "is a serious, political, and life-and-death battle. (We) must conduct trials in a timely manner and make verdicts at appropriate times according to the boundaries delimited by policies and the period set by the law." A notice issued by the Supreme Court on November 5th, 1999 stated that the courts at all levels "should carefully deploy to avoid any failure under the leadership of the Communist Party Committee and the Political and Judicial Committee" in any Falun Gong hearings. It also stated that the courts should take this "as an important political task and must do it quickly and well."

Under the despotic power of Jiang and the 6-10 Offices at all levels, formal legal proceedings were undermined. Many Falun Gong practitioners who were illegally sentenced have proved that all procedures of the court hearings were just a show.

4. Public Security, Procuratorate, the court, and the National Security Department Collaborated in the Persecution

Liu Jiachen, deputy director of the Supreme Court, required that courts all over the country" should further increase the initiative and foresight in their work, to fully bring the trial into play, and to strengthen the contact and coordination with the police department, public security, and Procuratorate in an effort to earnestly carry out various requirements set up by the Party Central Committee, and achieve complete victory in this battle."

From Liu Jiachen's speech, we can see that the Public Security, Procuratorate, the courts, and the National Security maliciously collaborated to plan, organise and implement the persecution. By investigating the Supreme Court's 2000-2004 work reports and the Supreme Procuratorate's 2000-2004 work reports, we can conclude that Falun Gong was their top target during this period of large scale persecution.

Liu Jiachen stated in his speech that Falun Gong practitioners' administrative lawsuit against the civil administration, public security, and the press "should not be accepted according to the requirements of the Supreme Court's notice."

One sample case is Falun Gong practitioner, He Lizhi, who now resides in Canada. He reported that in July of the year 2000, both the National Security Department and the Public Security Department tried to abduct him from his home for "earning credits for rewards or promotion." In order to support their claim, the personnel from National Security violated the Constitution by following and videotaping him mailing letters to his friends. They then submitted the videotape to the court as "evidence."

5. Depriving the Citizens' Basic Human Rights

Falun Gong practitioners have been completely deprived of their legal rights to appeal and uphold justice. Initially, Falun Gong practitioners were prohibited from having a lawyer. Later, they were allowed to have a lawyer but the lawyer was not allowed to actually defend them. Only a very few lawyers with a sense of justice dared to represent Falun Gong practitioners. For example, Gao Zhisheng, one of the "Nation's Ten Best Lawyers," was a defence counsel for a Falun Gong practitioner.

6. Who Initiated Today's Global Campaign to Bring Jiang to Justice?

What the perpetrators did not expect is that their violence and brutality, their daring to offend the dignity of the law, and their evil conduct under the pretence of maintaining order would eventually bring about today's global campaign to bring Jiang to justice in the world. One of the reasons people are seeking justice in the international community is that the Chinese government is unable to independently separate the law from the nation's political system and the communist party in order to fairly and independently administer justice. From October 2002 to December 2004, overseas Falun Dafa practitioners have sued the chief persecutor, Jiang Zemin, for genocide, torture, and crimes against humanity in the US, Belgium, Spain, Taiwan, Germany, South Korea, Canada, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, Bolivia, Chile, and Holland respectively.

January 4, 2005.

Terms "Six Prohibitions" are:

1. It is prohibited for anybody to hang or post banners, pictures, symbols and other tokens in any place or during any event to promote Falun Gong.
2. It is prohibited for anybody to distribute books, magazines, video, audio materials and any other means of promoting Falun Gong, in any place or during any occasion.
3. It is prohibited for anybody to gather crowds to do "group practice," "Falun Dafa promotion," and other similar Falun Gong activities, in any place or during any occasion.
4. It is prohibited for anybody to hold "conferences," "parades," and "demonstrations" that support or promote Falun Gong by means of "meditation" or "making an appeal."
5. It is prohibited to fabricate or distort facts, spread rumours deliberately, or instigate and interfere with the social order through other means.
6. It is prohibited for anybody to organise, assemble, or lead events that are against government policies.