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UPI: Chinese official accused of torture By Al Swanson Tuesday, 28 August 2001 15:30 (ET) CHICAGO, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A provincial Chinese [party's name omitted] Party official
visiting the United States was served with a complaint accusing him of
violating the Torture Victims Protection act by oppressing followers of
Falun Gong in China. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court Monday, was directed against
Sichuan Provincial Committee General Secretary Zhou Youngkang, who was
touring businesses and municipal agencies in the area. "He was hand-served a summons as he was getting out of his limousine while
he was going to the 911 Center," said attorney Terry Marsh Tuesday in a
telephone interview from New York. "He accepted it." Marsh, a lawyer who has represented members of the Falun Gong spiritual
group in previous court actions, said the civil complaint charged the
Chinese official with torture, crimes against humanity, false imprisonment,
inhuman and degrading treatment, causing disappearances and other charges
under the Torture Victims Protection Act and the Arien-Tort Claims Act. She said U.S. law gave Zhou 20 days to respond to the summons and
indicated the group would continue to legally go after [party's name omitted] officials
who travel outside China. "We intend to keep serving them," she said. Outlawed as an "[Jiang Zemin government's slanderous term omitted]" in China, Falun Gong has been the target of a
government crackdown. The movement [...] believes meditation and exercise will bring good health and
morality. One of the plantiff's, Haiyne He, a graduate student in bio-medicine at
Harvard University Medical School, said his brother and sister, both Falun
Gong devotees, were detained in China. He, 36, who has lived in Boston since 1995, said his 34-year-old sister,
an elementary school teacher in Sichang, was sent to a labor camp in January
and that his family had not been able to contract her. His brother Haiou He,
a 32-year-old doctor, was detained in October 2000 and has disappeared. Chinese authorities are believed to have executed hundreds of followers of
the banned [group]. Ten Falun Gong members remained on a hunger strike Tuesday
near Beijing's Central Government Liaison Office in Hong Kong protesting the
imprisonment of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=215505
Posting date: 8/29/2001 |