(Minghui.org) Mr. Li Zongze's father was arrested in January 2014 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese regime for the past 17 years. In seeking his father's release, Mr. Li was arrested three times. He was beaten by the police, illegally detained, interrogated, and fired from his job.
On September 5, 2014, the police assaulted him for inquiring about his father's case. Two weeks later, when the court discharged the defense attorney that the family had hired for his father, Mr. Li took the lawyer's place and defended his father. After the court sentenced his father to prison, Mr. Li tried to visit him at the detention center in July 2015. The police officers there beat him and detained him for 24 hours.
Mr. Li and his parents filed a criminal complaint against former Chinese Communist leader Jiang Zemin for ordering the persecution of Falun Gong. The complaint was filed on June 20, 2015. Two days later, Mr. Li filed a separate criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin for the injustice the family had suffered.
For filing those lawsuits, Mr. Li was arrested at work on November 20. He was detained for ten days, beaten, and fired from his job.
The following is an excerpt from Mr. Li's lawsuit.
Falun Gong Changed My Father for the Better
After my father started practicing Falun Gong when I was four years old in 1997, he got rid of his bad habits, such as smoking, drinking, and gambling. He often told me to think about others first and to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. At the time, I didn't really understand it, but I knew he was a good man.
One time on our way to visit my grandparent, we saw an elderly man fall out of his wheelchair. He tried to get back in several times but just couldn’t manage it. People were passing by, but no one stopped to help him. My father did stop and helped him back into his wheelchair. He never said anything about it, but it left a deep impression on me.
My Family's Ordeals
My father was taken to a detention center from work in November 2001 after the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999. He was only released after we paid 2,000 yuan in extortion to the police.
Just five months later, he was taken to a brainwashing center. My mother didn't know what to do, and she cried every day. Totally stressed, she sent me to stay with my father in the brainwashing center. I was nine years old at the time.
I was terrified to see police officers everywhere and every room under strict surveillance. Eventually, the police send me home after repeated requests from my father.
My father was forced to resign from his job in 2012, because he refused to denounce Falun Gong. He opened an electronics shop to make a living.
In January 2014, over a dozen police officers broke into our home. My father was arrested again. His shop was forced to close.
My mother went to the police station almost daily. Sometimes the police threatened to arrest her, “We will arrest you too if you keep coming.” Other times they lied to her, “You husband will be released soon, as long as you stop coming here.”
One time when my mother went to the police station to ask about my father, a police captain said something to her. By the time I got there, she had already tried to kill herself by hitting her head against the wall twice. For the two months after the incident, she could hardly eat or sleep. Her spirit was completely broken.
When my 83-year-old grandmother went to the police station to visit my father, the police pushed her out before she could say much.
During my father's trial, the court removed his defense attorney because he entered a not-guilty plea. I decided to defend my father myself. The prosecutor accused my father of having Falun Gong videos on his computer, even though that does not constitute a crime under any law. When I tried to present evidence about the benefits of practicing Falun Gong, the judge interrupted me repeatedly. He didn't allow the witness to testify for my father either.
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 during 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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