Shortly after eleven Falun Gong practitioners were were forcibly removed from Belgrade en route to the CEE-China Summit to protest the Chinese regime's persecution of Falun Gong, the leader of the Politics Can Be Different (LMP) party in Hungary issued a statement condemning Serbian authorities' illegal detention of the practitioners and violation of their human rights.

Below is a translation of the official LMP press release:

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Budapest, 19 December 2014, Friday (OS)–The official action against the Falun Gong demonstration in Belgrade is unacceptable. The LMP sent a letter to the Hungarian Ambassador to Serbia to express opposition to the serious human rights violation, and the undermining of the peaceful Falun Gong demonstration planned during the Central and Eastern Europe–China summit in Belgrade.

The LMP considers that from the perspective of ethics and human rights, it was unacceptable and illegal for Serbian authorities to ban such events, during which many EU citizens–including one under international protection for being a persecuted Falun Gong member–were illegally detained and denied entry [into Serbian territory].

The event aimed to raise awareness of the ongoing human rights violations in China, especially about live organ harvesting carried out on nonconsenting Falun Gong practitioners. In China, even today, people can disappear in concentration camps solely on ideological grounds. It is in the common European interest to stand up against this, and it cannot be overridden by any disguise of economic or strategic alliance with the Chinese Communist dictatorship. The LMP considers this unacceptable and expresses deep concern that such an action could have happened in Serbia on the verge of its joining the EU.

András SchifferCo-President, Group

Thomas Meszerics,MEP