(Minghui.org) Nearly twenty Falun Gong practitioners in Slovakia welcomed the coming of the New Year in front of the Chinese embassy in Bratislava, where they meditated and did the Falun Gong exercises as part of an annual event to raise awareness of the persecution of the spiritual discipline in China.

Amid the sound of festive celebrations, the participants sat in quiet meditation and remembered the victims of the persecution that continued through 2016. The meditators entered the new year with a wish that the persecution of innocent practitioners in China would end.

Their banner reads “Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice,” referring to the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party who initiated the violent suppression of Falun Gong in 1999.

The practitioners' weekly protests in front of the Chinese embassy in Bratislava have lasted ten years. Their efforts have led many passersby to learn about the persecution and wish practitioners success.