Italy: Practitioners' Presentation at the 2002 "Hands Off Cain" Report on the Death Sentence
Rome, 28 June 2002
On Friday 28 June, the Human Rights Group Hands Off Cain presented their 2002 report on "The Death Penalty Situation Worldwide" in the seat of Via Torre Argentina, Rome. Sergio d'Elia, Hands Off Cain's secretary, spoke with the 2002 report's editor Elisabetta Zamparutti, Radical Party Leader and author of the report's preface, Marco Pannella, Foreign Office secretary Mario Baccini, columnist Idris Sanneh and Falun Gong practitioner Mrs. Jane Dai.
Falun Gong spokesman Zhang Erping briefly explained the repressive situation in China and thanked Hands Off Cain "for inviting us to this press conference, giving an opportunity to millions of Chinese people to freely reveal the truth here in Italy. While in every democracy there is freedom of information, in China the voices of tens of millions of practitioners have been banned from the government-controlled media."
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| Erping Zhang, Falun Gong spokesman with Mrs. Jane Zhizhen Dai, her daughter and Anna Zammit (co-editor) | Erping Zhang's speech |
At the press conference there was also Idris Sanneh, the popular columnist and sports journalist, previous regular guest of the TV show "Quelli che il Calcio." Idris said: "It is our duty to be present at testimonials against all the injustices such as the one against Falun Gong in China."
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| Speech of the columnist Idris Sanneh | Elisabetta Zamparutti's speech |
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| Speech of Sergio D'Elia | |
Jane Dai (38 years old, Australian citizen, degree in economy and a two year old daughter) was next to speak and told the audience about the persecution inflicted on her and her family by dictator Jiang's regime. Mr. Chen Chengyong, her husband, was born in China in 1967, where he lived in Haizhu, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. He was an electrician in a paper mill but was fired for going to Beijing to peacefully appeal for Falun Gong. In November 2000, he was forced to leave home to avoid brainwashing class. In January 2000 he was sent to jail for 15 days in Guangzhou City because he practised Falun Gong. In July 2000, police detained him for 3 weeks. He was imprisoned again in Beijing for unfurling a Falun Gong banner in Tiananmen Square on December 31, 2000. Jane lost contact with him on January 10, 2001. In July 2001 his body was found in a suburb of Guangzhou. Jane came to know about her husband's death through news issued on a Falun Dafa website.
Jane's sister-in-law identified Chen's body and she found it in a state of decomposition, meaning that the police had kept it a while before informing the family of the death. Therefore, nobody knows the exact date of his death. Following this, the sister-in-law was sentenced to 2 years in a forced labor camp without trial. When Jane's father-in-law came to know about the death of his son and the sentence against his daughter, he was so shocked that he had to be rushed to hospital, and he died a little later.
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| Jane Zhizhen Dai with her daughter Fadu talks about the persecution Falun Gong practitioners suffer at the hands of the Chinese authorities. | |
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| Jane Zhizhen Dai interviewed by the French journalist Nicole Martiche from Agence France Press (AFP) | |
Jane Dai with her daughter Fadu talks about the persecution Falun Gong practitioners at the hands of the Chinese dictator.
The Australian government helped Jane retrieve her Husband's ashes from the Chinese authorities. "My husband died just because he was a Falun Gong practitioner," says Jane, her thin body and trembling voice portraying the persecution she has been suffering.
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| Among the public sit the former Culture Minister Giovanna Melandri (first lady on the right) and Ugo Papi, Minister responsible for the DS party | ...and also many people from different embassies |
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| Different television teams are present (here RAI 1 e TG5) | Two journalists from Chinese press agency XINHUA are here too |
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| The public listen attentively | |
Source: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/5535.html