(Minghui.org) On June 16, Mr. Zhang Xingwu and his wife Ms. Liu Pinjie, Falun Gong practitioners from Jinan City, Shandong Province, sued former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin for launching the persecution of Falun Gong.
Their daughter Ms. Zhang Shuangyin, a New York resident, has been trying to secure their freedom for the past 7 years. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities would not release her father Mr. Zhang Xinwu until his prison term expired.
Mr. Zhang Xingwu, 74, was a physics professor at Jinan Education College in Shandong Province. After the persecution began in July 1999, he was demoted and his pay was cut. He was detained on many occasions and his house was ransacked repeatedly.
Mr. Zhang was sent to Liuchangshan Forced Labor Camp in Jinan City in 2001 for 3 years. He was arrested again on July 16, 2008, under the pretext of "security measures" for the Olympics and later sentenced to seven years in prison.
Ms. Liu Pinjie, 74, was retired from Jinan Semi-Conductor Research Institute in Jinan City. She also began three years in a forced labor camp in 2001. She suffered a stroke and became paralyzed in the labor camp.
Related Reports
New York: Falun Gong Practitioners Celebrate the 11th World Falun Dafa Day (Photos)[Eight-year old Aaron played the song "Lotus Flower" on the keyboard. His grandfather, Prof. Zhang Xingwu, has been persecuted in China for eight years because he practices Falun Gong. Prof. Zhang is still imprisoned in China.]
US Report on International Religious Freedom Notes that the CCP's Repression and Abuse of Religious Freedom["In April 2009, Zhang Xingwu, a retired physics professor from Shandong Province, was sentenced to seven years in prison after police found Falun Gong literature in his apartment.]
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 thousands of Falun Gong practitioners over 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 now allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.
