Australia: Bo Xilai Visits Australia and is Sued for Torture

Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, who is accompanying Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to visit Australia, has been sued for torture and genocide by Falun Gong practitioners in Australia. This is another lawsuit filed against Bo when he visited foreign countries, following the lawsuits against him in the US, the UK, Ireland and Russia.

On March 31st, 2006, Falun Gong practitioner Pan Yu filed a lawsuit against Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, who plans to visit Australia, accusing him of committing crimes of torture and genocide. The Sydney Supreme Court officially accepted his submission according to International law and Australian law, and will hold the first hearing on April 10th, 2006.

Defendant Bo Xilai has been actively following Jiang's regime to persecute Falun Gong practitioners since July 20, 1999. When he was the mayor of Dalian City, deputy secretary of Liaoning Provincial Party committee and governor of Liaoning Province, he discussed and arranged the persecution of Falun Gong in many meetings. When he was governor of Liaoning Province from January 2001 to February 2004, Bo Xilai actively planned and built large prison facilities, and invested 1 billion yuan into reconstructing prisons within the province. Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, notorious for its brutality and ruthlessness in the persecution of Falun Gong, was allotted over 500 million yuan. Liaoning Province is one of the provinces where the persecution of Falun Gong has been the most severe. The recently-disclosed secret concentration camp in the Sujiatun District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province held about 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners from northeast area of China at a time. Witnesses revealed that there is usually a large number of doctors there, and it also contains a crematorium. Falun Gong practitioners have had their organs harvested while still alive and their murdered bodies cremated immediately to destroy the evidence.

Bo Xilai transferred responsibilities to his subordinates in the persecution of Falun Gong so that local governments are incited to blatantly employ torture on Falun Gong practitioners. The cases of torture deaths of practitioners increased sharply. Therefore, Bo Xilai cannot shirk his responsibilities in this persecution.

Plaintiff Pan Yu speaks at press conference

Plaintiff Pan Yu traveled to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on February 1st, 2000 and was forcibly sent to Shenyang City's Danan Custody Centre. Without going through any legal procedures, he was detained for six months. During that time, he was subjected to all kinds of tortures. Pan Yu used his personal experience to accuse the follower of Jiang's regime, Bo Xilai, of committing huge crimes against Falun Gong practitioners and all of humanity.

Bo Xilai tried hard to avoid Falun Gong practitioners during his stay in Australia. Practitioners had to deliver the subpoena of the Sydney Supreme Court to his retinue. Though the retinue threw the subpoena on the ground, the court held that the subpoena has been delivered to the defendant.

Former surgeon at the No.1 Hospital affiliated with a Chinese Medical University in Liaoning Province Yuan Hong

Falun Gong practitioner Yuan Hong, was once a surgeon at the No. 1 Hospital affiliated with Chinese Medical University in Liaoning Province. As he knew, organs are harvested from death penalty criminals for organ transplants, including their hearts, lungs, kidneys, livers and other organs. As a doctor who had been working in a hospital in Shenyang for ten years, he believes that the recent revelations about the Sujiatun Concentration Camp, where nearly 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been locked up and where doctors there harvest their organs, are true. Bo Xilai, who was once governor of Liaoning Province, must also bear responsibility for the Sujiatun death camp.

Former professor of Procedural Law at Beijing University Yuan Hongbing expressed that Falun Gong's lawsuit against Bo Xilai is a righteous action. China is to a large extent actually ruled by a group of criminals who commit crimes against humanity. Therefore the lawsuit against these criminals, is not only Falun Gong practitioners' right, but also a righteous legal action, and should be supported by all of humanity.