(Minghui.org) Senior economist Ms. Zhao Wenjie recently filed a lawsuit against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin for ordering the brutal suppression of Falun Gong and her illegal arrest and detention.
Her lawsuit was received by the Supreme People's Procuratorate on June 19, 2015.
Ms. Zhao Wenjie, 68, was a cadre at the Jiamusi City Branch of Business Bank in Heilongjiang Province. She began to practice Falun Gong in 1995.
Since 1999, she has been illegally arrested, detained and sentenced to forced labor three times. She was also brutally tortured inside the forced labor camps.
“Jiang Zemin abused his power to crack down on 100 million Falun Gong practitioners,” wrote Ms. Zhao in her complaint. “His actions were completely illegal and for his own motivations. The only reason we were tortured was because we believed in 'Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.' The 610 office formed under his order is also a illegal organization.”
Below, Ms. Zhao speaks of her experience.
Detained After Appealing for Falun Gong
I was a senior economist and a national level cadre, and have won many awards for excellent performance. However, none of that seemed to matter simply because I refused to give up practicing Falun Gong.
Because of my beliefs and my beliefs alone, I have been illegally arrested, detained, and forced into sweatshop labor three times.
In July 1999 after Jiang Zemin launched the persecution of Falun Gong, I went to Beijing with my daughter to appeal for Falun Gong on July 19, 1999. At each stop of our train to Beijing, there were many practitioners who were identified by the police and forcibly sent back to their hometowns.
We managed to arrive safely in Beijing. But before we could enter the appeals agencies, we were taken away by armed policemen. Our food was confiscated, and we were not allowed to eat. Our bathroom usage was also at the policemen's discretion.
Soon, we were sent back by train along with some other practitioners. As soon as we arrived at the Changchun City Railway Station, we were handed over to armed policemen, who treated us like criminals and videotaped us one by one. These people escorted us all the way back to our hometown.
I will never forget that night. I was stripped of my status as an official and instantly became a criminal.
When we arrived at Jiamusi, it was late at night.
An officer saw us and yelled, “You all should die!”
I felt wronged, but I also knew it couldn't be helped. Not with the constant stream of lies that people were exposed to.
I was sent to the detention center where I would see and experience hell for the first time. Our food was either always severely undercooked or extremely overcooked – inedible. Insects and dirt were regulars at the bottoms of our soup bowls.
We slept on the floor like sardines in a can. Because there were so many people in one room, each person could only sleep on her side. If anyone went to the bathroom at night, she wouldn't be able to get her spot back. The sheets smelled like they haven't been laundered in years.
In July 2001, I was sent to the Sigemu Forced Labor Camp in Jiamusi City. We were forced to get up before 5 A.M. to start our workday in the sweatshops. We were served one black bun a day along with some watery soup.
Over ten practitioners shared a tiny washroom in which to brush our teeth. But despite our forced physical closeness, we weren't allowed to talk to each other, or walk beside each other.
Guard Sun Hui was young but one of the harshest. She often beat practitioners for fun. Once, she made all of us stand for several hours at night simply because she thought she heard one of us whisper something.
Life in the forced labor camp was intense. We had to do everything fast, from our work to our bathroom breaks. Anybody caught being slow would be subject to “discipline.”
At night, we were put in groups of four. If anyone had to use the bathroom, the whole group had to go with her. Liu Yadong, the head guard, intentionally grouped me and two other sexagenarians with a practitioner that had to go to the bathroom three times a night.
As a result, I rarely got a good night's rest. I had high blood pressure at the time, and could not fall asleep easily.
Detained for Going to a Friend's House
I went to my friend Zhao Guiyou's home in Hegang City on September 7, 2005. I was arrested and sent to the forced labor camp for two years, without any evidence for my supposed crime.
When I was detained at the Xiangyang City Police Department, I was locked in a iron cage overnight because I refused to tell them my name. Four policemen kicked me and beat me with their shoes.
They didn't stop beating me until they looked up my name from their computer system. By that time, my feet were swollen like loaves of bread due to their beating.
Later I was sent to the Xigemu Forced Labor camp. However the medical check showed my that blood pressure was 220 and heart beat was 120. The forced labor camp refused to accept me.
I was brought back to the Hegang City Detention Center.
During my detention, other practitioners and I kept on clarifying the truth and exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. We insisted on reciting the Fa, doing the exercises, sending forth righteous thoughts and writing appealing letters to the politicians in charge.
We went on a hunger strike for many days to protest the torture methods used on practitioners.
At that time, many people in the detention center had been deceived by the negative propaganda and treated practitioners badly. We were under huge pressure and danger. My blood pressure was always above 200, but the police department didn't care.
I was detained for a total of forty-five days.
Arrested When Appealing to Higher Court
Ma Duo is a practitioner who had just graduated from college. One day he was arrested from his workplace and sent to a detention center for more than 7 months. Later, he was sentenced to three years in prison by the Jiamusi Suburban Court. He and his family decided to appeal.
I accompanied the lawyer they hired from Beijing and Ma's relative to Jiamusi City Middle Court in order to submit appealing documents on July 2, 2008. However, policemen from the domestic security division and personnel from the “610 Office” led by Chen Wanyou arrested all of us.
They released the lawyer, but sent me and Ma's relative to the Changhong Police Station. We were transferred to the city's detention center the same night.
By then, I had been detained for a total of three months, and my blood pressure was always above 200 due to the trauma. My life was in danger but the guards didn't care at all. They sent me to the Xigemu Forced Labor Camp for further persecution.
Ma Duo's family was forced to pay 15,000 Yuan by Li Qingbo and Zhao Meijie from the forced labor camp committee. I was released in October.
Effects on My Family
Over 10 years of persecution, I have suffered both physically and mentally. My family was also under huge pressure and suffered a lot. When I was sent to the forced labor camp the first time, my husband lost over 30 pounds from stress.
The car I borrowed from my friend was also confiscated by the police department, and had not been returned until very recently.
In order to repay the car, my family took out all their savings but it still was not enough. Every month they had to save most of their salary for the debt, leaving precious little for their own expenses.
Even my little grandson suffered. Since he was one year old, he has been a witness of police harassment. Now, he's been conditioned to be scared of anyone knocking on our door.
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 many Falun Gong practitioners in 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 allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.
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