(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zeng Shugang submitted a lawsuit to the Supreme People's Procuratorate on August 8, 2015, suing former Chinese Communist Party head Jiang Zemin for tremendous suffering he incurred after Jiang launched the persecution of Falun Gong.
Because he practiced Falun Gong, the 45-year-old former production manager of a toy factory in Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province lost his job, was illegally arrested eight times, and spent over seven years in prisons, forced labor camps, and brainwashing centers. He lost three family members–his sister and both parents–during his incarceration.
Mr. Zeng started practicing Falun Gong in July 1996, after which his chronic back pain disappeared. He enjoyed a happy family life, and was well regarded by his colleagues.
Mr. Zeng was arrested five times within a six-month period. His first arrest was on July 22, 1999, just two days after Jiang Zemin launched the persecution. He was detained for six hours and ordered to stop practicing.
He was arrested twice for doing the exercises in a park, and detained for 15 days each time.
Mr. Zeng was arrested another two times for going to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. He was detained 15 days after the first arrest. After the second arrest in Beijing, he was detained at the Hongshan Detention Center in Chaozhou for several months, where he was forced to perform intensive labor, endure beatings, and forced to stand in the cold rain for an entire night.
After his fifth arrest, Mr. Zeng was subjected to two years of forced labor in May 2000.
Mr. Zeng was imprisoned at the Sanshui Forced Labor Camp in Foshan City, Guangdong Province from 2000 to 2002, and monitored by criminal inmates around the clock. He was forced to pull weeds every day from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., during the hottest part of the day. At one point he became severely ill from heat exhaustion, but was still forced to work under the hot sun the next day.
Mr. Zeng was put in solitary confinement for 17 days in November 2000. He was stripped down to his underwear and had to sleep on the cold ground. There were no eating utensils, nor was any toilet paper provided. In addition to the deplorable living conditions, Mr. Zeng was tortured with electric batons every day.
He was released in January 2002, but was arrested again in May 2002 and taken to a brainwashing center. He was forced to drink alcohol and beaten. He was not released until November. His family was forced to pay several hundred yuan for Mr. Zeng's “living expenses.”
Mr. Zeng's seventh arrest took place in May 2003, when he was visiting a fellow practitioner. He was released that night, but the police came looking for him again the next day. In a desperate effort to avoid arrest, Mr. Zeng jumped from the third floor. He was able to escape but had to go into hiding afterwards.
Mr. Zeng was arrested in Jieyang City, Guangdong Province on October 17, 2007, and was detained for seven months. While in detention he was beaten, doused with cold water, and forced to do intensive labor from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., with only 15 minutes allowed for meal breaks.
Mr. Zeng was sentenced to five years in prison in 2008, and transferred to Meizhou Prison in Guangdong Province. The prison assigned a minimum of five criminal inmates to monitor each Falun Gong practitioner. Inmates forced Mr. Zeng to sit on a small stool from 6:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. every day. They were instructed to beat him if he moved or didn't sit up straight enough. As a result of the prolonged sitting, Mr. Zeng developed open sores on his buttocks that became infected and stuck to his trousers.
Mr. Zeng was also deprived of sleep and forced to read materials and watch videos that slandered Falun Gong. He was denied family visits while imprisoned.
When Mr. Zeng was held at the brainwashing center in 2002, his sister was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Before she died, she asked to see her brother for one last time, but the brainwashing center refused to release him even for a brief period.
His mother, unable bear the pain of her son being persecuted and her daughter passing away, left home. Her whereabouts are still unknown.
His father, out of the pain of losing his daughter and wife, fell gravely ill and passed away shortly after.
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.