French Reunion Island Daily News: Li Lanqing should have been sued in January
(Clearwisdom.net) On August 6th 2003, French Reunion Island Daily News
carried an article revealing that legal proceedings against Chinese Vice-Premier
Li Lanqing have officially started in France. Li Lanqing is the head of the
"610 Office", an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong,
with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other
political and judiciary systems in China. He is being charged with the
persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
According to attorney William Bourdon, who was well known for
being a lawyer in the lawsuit against Augusto Pinochet, non-governmental
organizations were not fully informed about Li Lanqing's stopover in French
territory in January, so the legal proceedings against Li actually started about
a month ago. A preliminary hearing judge in Paris was appointed to deal with
this case pursuant to the International Convention against Torture, enacted on
December 10th 1984, and other international anti-abuse conventions. The hearing
reminded people that when Li Lanqing stopped over in Reunion Island in January,
he was the Vice-Premier of the People's Republic of China.
Four witnesses submitted an indictment against Li to a public
prosecutor in Nice on December 4th 2002. They accused him of cruel torture in
the oppression of Falun Gong practitioners. One of the plaintiffs said that the
lawsuit was in vain due to political pressure. The lawyers thus decided to refer
the case to Paris. When the Chinese Vice-Premier set foot on French Reunion
Island, it would have been a good opportunity to file the lawsuit, but the
non-governmental organizations were not informed of this visit. At present, the
judicial department is not aware of the whereabouts of Li Lanqing.
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