Toronto, August 15 -- This morning in Hong Kong, sixteen Falun Gong practitioners were convicted of causing an obstruction in an appeal outside the Chinese government's Liaison Office. Toronto Falun Gong practitioners held a peaceful appeal of the verdict outside of the Hong Kong main office in Canada between 12:30pm and 3pm this afternoon.

Over 30 practitioners made the appeal after hearing the news of the verdict. An appeal letter was delivered to a manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Toronto. Falun Gong representative Jillian Ye, who delivered the letter, said to the manager:

"We are not here to oppose your office. We are here to sincerely express our deepest concern for Hong Kong and for the Hong Kong people."

Almost all of the major Chinese media came to report the appeal activity under very short notice, including World Journal, Ming Pao, Sing Tao Daily, New Tang Dynasty TV, Fairchild TV, CFMT TV, Fairchild Radio, Radio Free Asia etc.

Pointing to some photos took at the scene of the arrest, a practitioner explained to some reporters why the 4 Swiss practitioners went to Hong Kong to do a legal and peaceful hunger strike and how the police were apparently under pressure from China's Liaison Office to violently arrest the practitioners. The reporters were shocked to see these photos and moved by the practitioners' noble actions.