Citizens from Six Countries Submit Legal Case Against Chinese Leader to United Nations
Violation of all 33 UN Human Rights Declarations Cited
Plaintiffs include one Hong Kong man and one Beijing man currently in Chinese Custody
LONDON, October 22, 2002 (European Falun Gong Information Centre) – On October 21 2002, citizens and residents from Canada, the US, France and Australia, Ireland, Hong Kong and China jointly submitted a legal case against Communist Party Head Jiang Zemin and two other top Chinese officials to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the International Criminal Court for crimes committed in instigating and carrying out the brutal persecution of Falun Gong.
The other two officials named in the case are Zeng Qinghong, Head of the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China, and Luo Gan, Secretary of the Central Commission of Politics and Law. Among the outcomes sought from the legal case, the submission calls on the Prosecutors’ Office of the International Criminal Court to launch an international criminal investigation into the three named officials.
Among the plaintiffs, Mr. Wang Jie of Beijing and Mr. Chu O-Ming, a Hong Kong businessman, had previously submitted a legal case against the same three officials to the Supreme People’s Procurator of China in August 2000. Shortly after submitting the case, however, more than ten police broke into a private residence in Beijing and arrested both Mr. Wang and Mr. Chu.
“As a group [of eight plaintiffs], we have personally faced kidnapping, prolonged incarceration, extortion of money and property, forced labour, prolonged beatings, severe torture, sexual assault and the murder of our family members under Jiang’s persecution of Falun Gong,” said plaintiff Zenon Dolnyckyj, of Canada. “We are merely a cross-section of the millions who have been affected.”
“Jiang’s persecution of Falun Gong has taken the life of my husband and torn apart my family,” says Ms. Jane Dai, an Australian citizen whose husband was tortured to death by Chinese authorities last year because he practices Falun Gong. Ms. Dai’s sister-in-law was also sent to a forced labour camp because of her practice.
A press conference was held in Toronto, Canada, where Mr. Joel Etienne of the Etienne and Associates Law firm addressed the media: “We claim in these communications that the essence and the particularized rights contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights have been grossly violated…The Communications explain how and why the named defendants have a direct responsibility in what is involved.”
Six plaintiffs have joined Mr. Wang Jie and Mr. Chu O-Ming in this case. They include:
Mr. Zhao Ming, an Irish resident; Ms. Jane Dai, an Australian resident; Ms. Jennifer Zeng, an Australian citizen; Ms. Helene Petit, a French citizen; Mr. Levi Browde, an American citizen and Mr. Zenon Dolnyckyj, a Canadian citizen.
“Today’s submission marks the beginning of international legal action against those responsible for the brutal and unlawful persecution of Falun Gong in China,” said Mr. Dolnyckyj. “They must be held accountable for the terror they’ve brought to innocent people, and they must be stopped.”
For more information on-line, visit: http://www.faluninfo.net/focus/icc/
The European Falun Gong Information Centre has verified details of 505 deaths since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. Government officials inside China, however, report that the actual death toll is well over 1,600. Over 100,000 have been detained, with more than 20,000 being sentenced to forced labour camps without trial.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE EUROPEAN FALUN GONG INFORMATION CENTRE - Contact: Peter Jauhal 44 (0) 7985 034 543. More contacts. http://www.falungonginfo.net/europe.htm Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.clearharmony.net/
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