Washington Times: Jiang sued in U.S. for torture

January 15, 2003
By Tom Carter

A lawsuit charging Chinese President Jiang Zemin with torture and genocide against members of the Falun Gong [group] is inching its way through the U.S. federal court system, where victims hope to hold him accountable for "crimes against humanity."

A judgment on whether Mr. Jiang will have to face trial in U.S. federal court could come this spring.

"It is clear that Jiang Zemin is behind the torture, ordered the torture, and should be held responsible," said Terri Marsh, the Washington-based attorney for the victims.

Using the Alien Tort Claim Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act, Ms. Marsh filed papers with the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois Oct. 18, four days before Mr. Jiang made a brief visit to the city.

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Similar cases have been dismissed quickly as courts rule that sitting heads of state have immunity from prosecution. For example, human rights lawsuits against Cuba's Fidel Castro, and most recently Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, have failed because the leaders are considered immune.

At the request of the Chinese government, the State Department and the Justice Department filed a brief in the case with the opinion that Mr. Jiang had immunity, Ms. Marsh said.

On Monday, the court gave Ms. Marsh 60 days to prepare her argument stating why the case against Mr. Jiang should go forward.

Ms. Marsh said she hopes to persuade the judge to expand the interpretation of the law to allow some heads of state to be held accountable.

"If Hitler visited the United States during the Holocaust, would this country have offered him immunity?" she said. "If you look at all the cases dealing with heads of state, there is a lot of language supporting expanding the category."

She said the State Department brief was pro forma and that the agency's annual human rights report — detailing Chinese government abuses against Falun Gong, Tibetans, Christians and other religious groups — was a better representation of the U.S. position. [Falun Gong is not a religion and has no worships of rituals. For more information on the nature of Falun Gong, please visit falundafa.org].

The lawsuit charged that Mr. Jiang, as president of China, created Office 610 "specifically to persecute and torture Falun Gong practitioners."