Epoch Times: Chinese Officials Held Liable in U.S. Court (Photo)
By Matt Gnaizda
The Epoch Times Dec 16, 2004 LOS ANGELES -- The Northern California U.S. District Court found two high-ranking Chinese Communist Party officials liable for crimes of torture, genocide, and other crimes against humanity last week. The two defendants were Xia Deren, the mayor of Dalian, and Liu Qi, the Party Secretary of Beijing and the former mayor of the capital. They were sued under the Torture Victims Protection Act and the Alien Tort Claims Act for their role in the torture and killing of Falun Gong practitioners in China. "The People's Republic of China appears to have covertly authorized but publicly disclaimed the alleged human rights violations caused or permitted by Defendants...such violations are in fact prohibited by Chinese law," reads Magistrate Edward Chen's recommendation adopted last week by Judge Claudia Wilkin. According to the court, both defendants appear to have acted in violation of Chinese law, and were thus not entitled to the immunity foreign officials would receive when carrying out their legal governmental responsibilities. The plaintiffs did not receive damages, but in a recent statement they announced that they plan on pursuing official channels of barring Xia and Liu from entering the United States in the future. According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, Falun Gong plaintiffs have filed dozens of lawsuits in nearly 30 countries targeting Chinese officials and Chinese media for their role in the campaign against Falun Gong, a peaceful meditation practice banned in China since 1999. Many of the lawsuits have brought charges of genocide against former CCP chairman Jiang Zemin, who is recognized as the individual responsible for the launch of the campaign against Falun Gong in China. "Lawsuits against persecutors of Falun Gong have become the broadest collaborative efforts since the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg," says an FDIC statement released last Friday. The plaintiff's council, Dr. Terri Marsh said, "[These lawsuits] tell those who are responsible for the persecution that they cannot commit genocide and torture with impunity...We have heard encouraging stories of officials in China who are now beginning to walk away from involvement with the persecution because their previous notions of impunity have been shattered by the reality of lawsuits filed against them around the world." Among the original plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Falun Gong practitioners from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, the United States, and China. The two plaintiffs from China are said to have suffered torture in Beijing, while the six plaintiffs from other countries were arrested and beaten in Beijing during a 2001 appeal for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. They suffered broken bones, and a woman from France was sexually assaulted by a Beijing policeman. The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group has collected over 30,000 cases of torture and abuse against Falun Gong practitioners in China. On October 4, 2004, the U.S. Congress unanimously passed House Concurrent Resolution 304 condemning the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong in China, and its violence toward and harassment of Falun Gong practitioners and their supporters in the United States. Source: http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-12-16/24998.html 
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