The Epoch Times Australia Staff

Mar 02, 2006

Australian-Chinese artist and Falun Gong practitioner Ms Zhang Cuiying (The Epoch Times)

A Sydney woman suing Ex-Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin and the 610 Office (secret Chinese police), says she will seek a court order to pressure the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) into serving legal documents on the defendants.

43-year-old Australian-Chinese artist and Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Cuiying filed her case at the New South Wales Supreme Court in September 2004. She was tortured for 8 months in a Chinese labor camp for practicing Falun Gong, a peaceful meditation practice which has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist regime since 1999. Ms. Zhang was rescued in 2000 due to efforts by the Australian Government.

Registered Post receipts show Ms Zhang attempted to serve the papers three times, but all were rejected by the defendants. In August 2005 she requested DFAT deliver her claim to the Attorney-General and serve it on Communist officials.

However six months later the papers haven't been served.

"DFAT is trying to let the case drag on to the point it is no longer worth being tried," said Ms. Zhang through an interpreter.

DFAT has yet to respond, but departmental documents obtained through freedom of information reveal it advised Chinese officials on the case eight times since 2003.

In many exchanges the department stressed the Chinese Embassy should seek private legal advice and the Australian Government doesn't interfere in, or influence private legal matters.

In 2003 the Chinese Embassy proposed the Australian Government pressure Ms. Zhang's lawyers, but DFAT rejected the concept, calling it "clearly inappropriate."

However after the case was accepted in court, embarrassed Chinese officials pressured DFAT to help halt the case. After a heated discussion the department offered legal assistance, said Chinese defector Chen Yonglin.

A DFAT cable transcript dated September 28, 2004 said; "The [Australian] Government would do everything it could, within the law, to ensure that the case did not become a problem for the bilateral relationship.

"We noted advice from the Attorney General's Department that there were real doubts about the case proceeding to trial because of issues of extra-territorial jurisdiction and immunities accorded to Heads of State."

Assuming the case would not proceed, Chinese officials did not attend the status conference on December 10, 2004 and waited for the court to revoke the charges. Instead the court scheduled another conference for February 28, 2005.

Chinese officials complained to DFAT that the court had failed to reject the allegations. The department responded with a detailed explanation of the legal process.

"No judge had yet considered the matter, and this was likely to remain the case until such time as the plaintiff had delivered her claim to the Attorney-General for service by DFAT on the Chinese Government...Until then the claim would remain dormant," read a cable transcript dated January 10, 2005.

Ms. Zhang's lawyer, who wishes to remain unnamed, said if the court order is successful at conferences scheduled for the March 7 and 17 of this year, the Attorney-General will serve documents on the Chinese Communist Party's former leader and the 610 office and the case will proceed to the next stage.

"My client and I are waiting for the [court's] response," she said.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-3-2/38867.html