(Minghui.org) Mr. Zhang Xueyang, a Falun Gong practitioner from Lianyungang City in Jiangsu Province, was detained on September 15, 2015, for filing a lawsuit against former communist party leader Jiang Zemin.
Police searched Mr. Zhang's home following his arrest. The detention center refused to take him because of his poor health and handicapped legs. He was put on medical parole.
The police formalized his arrest on April 6, 2016 and made another attempt to send Mr. Zhang to a detention center. The Ganyu District Detention Center denied him again on medical grounds. The police extended his medical parole.
During a trial on May 12, however, the Ganyu District Court delivered a three-year jail sentence against Mr. Zhang. The court did not mention his lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, but instead built the case around Falun Gong books and flyers found at his house.
In his appeal to Lianyungang Intermediate Court, Mr. Zhang strongly defended his constitutional rights. He argued that possessing Falun Gong literature is not against the law, and that filing a lawsuit against Jiang Zemin is exercising a citizen’s right. He told the court personnel to do the right thing.
A few days later several court officials came to Mr. Zhang’s house. They wanted to know who helped him write the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin. Mr. Zhang refused to tell them. A month later on August 14, the court made a decision to sustain the three-year sentence.
Some people working for the justice system of Lianyugang City take their direction from the 610 Office and continue to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. They are consciously doing illegal work to advance their careers. If they keep persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, they could experience serious consequences in the future for them and their family.
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, then head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.
The persecution has killed countless Falun Gong practitioners during the past 16 years. Many have been murdered for their organs. Others have been imprisoned and tortured for their belief. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of this brutal persecution.
Under Jiang's direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security force, the 610 Office, on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides the police and judicial system. The 610 Office carries out Jiang's directive to eradicate Falun Gong: ruin practitioners' reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.
Jiang stepped down as head of the CCP in 2002, but he has exerted much power from the shadows through a network of officials he put in place. Chinese law now allows citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.