U.S. Human Rights Attorney Urges Singapore Court to Reverse Verdict

On April 29th 2005, Falun Gong practitioners in Washington D.C. went to the Singapore Embassy to appeal, and to urge the Singapore Government to immediately release the 2 Falun Gong practitioners and stop participating in the Chinese Government's persecution of Falun Gong. Human Rights attorney Dr. Terri Marsh gave a speech that made the following points.

-------------

1. Singapore presents itself to the international community at large as a democratic society based on the rule of law, an independent judicial branch (uninfluenced by the CCP in China) and constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

2. The police and prosecutor's office in Singapore are purportedly entrusted with the responsibility to protect social order and stability, and to protect the people of Singapore from crimes (like those committed by the CCP in China).

3. Singapore society claims to place a premium on communitarian values. It is a nation that prides itself on its ability to work together to protect the basic and fundamental rights of all peoples, as was evidenced most recently in the Tsunami crisis.

In the case of these two women, all of the above were compromised severely.

1. The rule of law and the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom of religion were compromised by the verdict that found guilty two women whose only crime was to try to tell the truth to the people of Singapore about the persecution of millions upon millions of persons in China, thereby giving the people of Singapore an opportunity to themselves join in what has become a universal and global movement to stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

2. By arresting these women and charging them with crimes, the police and office of the prosecution failed to uphold their responsibility to arrest and prosecute criminals and to protect innocent persons from serious criminal offenses. The office of the prosecutor has compromised its responsibility by treating these women's attempt to expose the truth about the persecution of Falun Gong in China as a criminal act, thereby failing to cognize that the crimes that require redress are those perpetrated by the CCP in China. Would the police in Singapore arrest a young child for reporting the rape of her mother to the police by the only means available to her - a video she took of the crime?

In the Greek myth of Tereus and Phaedra, Tereus rapes his wife's sister and cuts out her tongue. Her sister tells the truth of what occurred by weaving it on a tapestry. By the precedent set by the Singapore court in this case, the victim of rape would be found guilty of weaving a tapestry and Tereus the rapist would be free to continue to perpetrate rape on innocent women everywhere.

3. By ruling today that the adherents of Falun Gong may not expose the truth about the holocaust against Falun Gong in China, the Singapore Court has deprived the people of Singapore of their right to know the truth of the matter and to join together to help the victims in China as they have those in Tsunami.

Singapore stands alone. All other democracies around the globe have found the CCP and the perpetrators of the persecution of Falun Gong guilty by congressional resolutions, third party advisory reports (AI, Human Rights Watch, CNN, UN Rapatteur on Torture), and by legal judgments.

I urge the Court in Singapore to look more carefully at this case and reverse the verdict to a finding of not guilty.