(Minghui.org) A mother and her daughter, who have been tortured to near death because of their faith, filed a lawsuit last June against the former Chinese dictator who started the persecution 17 years ago. They accused Jiang Zemin of trampling on their freedom of belief, illegal detention and interrogation, assault and libel. They asked the Chinese Supreme Court to hold Jiang criminally responsible.
Ms. Yang Fenglian, 61, was a school teacher from Handan City, Hebei Province. She began to practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, in 1999 and soon recovered from numerous illnesses. She tried to resist the persecution after it began. As a result she's been arrested, incarcerated and tortured in various facilities for a total of two years and ten months, ranging from four days to one year. Her employer didn't pay her for nearly four years. She was tortured during incarceration and twice her life was in danger before she was released. When she was outside, the authorities constantly harassed her and her family. Consequently her husband divorced her and her elderly mother died because she was constantly terrified and worried.
Ms. Du Likun, 31, began to practice Falun Gong with her mother Ms. Yang when she was 15. The persecution began soon after, and she suffered numerous unspeakable tortures as a teenager. She's been arrested and detained three times over the years and incarcerated for a total of 16 months. She was expelled from two different schools because of the persecution. When she was 16 years old, she was twice stripped naked in a detention center and held down by male prisoners, as the male guards shocked her between her legs and the back of her head with electric batons. She was savagely force fed and put in shackles and handcuffs so that she couldn't sleep for days.
Background
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.
The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners in the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.
Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.
Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.
The United Nations Is Concerned about China's Persecution of Yang Fenglian and Her Daughter Du Likun
