(Minghui.org) Ms. Liu Huiping is a Falun Gong practitioner in Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province. The local police arrested her on September 26, 2022, using the excuse that her six-grader stepson also practiced Falun Gong. Her arrest was approved on October 21. She is currently under criminal detention.
Ms. Liu’s husband, Mr. Zhong Qingmiao, visited Lianxi Procuratorate on November 8 and submitted a complaint against prosecutor Lian Zhen for the illegal prosecution of his wife. He said that no Chinese law bans Falun Gong and that the practice is not on the Chinese authorities’ own cult list. Jiang Yaqing, a prosecutor who received him, refused to accept the complaint. “The entire county is like this [persecuting Falun Gong]. There is nothing I can do,” said Jiang.
Mr. Zhong returned two days later to submit his complaint. He was given a document, which the procuratorate said was the legal basis for their prosecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
The document was nowhere to be found online. Mr. Zhong noted it was an internal document issued by the Supreme Court on November 5, 1999 [Supreme Court, 1999-29], asking courts at various levels to study and follow two other documents that were both issued on October 30, 1999. The first document was “Resolution on Banning Heretic Cult Organizations, Guarding against and Punishing Heretic Cult Activities” from the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (“NPC Resolution” hereinafter). The second document was “Interpretation from the Supreme Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate Regarding the Application of the Law in Handling Cases Involving Heretic Organizations” (“Interpretation” hereinafter).
It is hard to imagine that prosecutors would cite an internal document, not an enacted law, to support their prosecution of Falun Gong practitioners. In fact, as analyzed below, none of the three documents mentioned above could justify the suppression of Falun Gong in China.
No Mention of Falun Gong in Supposed Legal Documents to Justify Persecution
When former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin began to suppress Falun Gong in July 1999, there was no enacted law to ban the peaceful practice. Twenty-three years have passed and there is still no statutory law that prohibits the practice of Falun Gong. To justify the persecution, Jiang directed the Supreme Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate to issue an interpretation of Article 300 of the Criminal Law, which stipulates that anyone practicing or promoting Falun Gong be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.
However, the “Interpretation” never mentioned “Falun Gong,” and neither did the “NPC Resolution.” One can see the absurdity of citing these documents to justify the persecution of Falun Gong. Nonetheless, they became “the legal basis” to arrest and prosecute Falun Gong practitioners all these years.
Like numerous political campaigns launched by the CCP in the past, the lawless communist regime simply resorted to defamatory lies and brutality to target whatever groups it intended to eradicate, including Falun Gong practitioners.
From monitoring and arrest to detention and sentencing of Falun Gong practitioners, the Chinese authorities have violated existing laws and trampled on the basic rights of innocent practitioners at every stage of the prosecution process.
In Ms. Liu’s case, Lianxi District Procuratorate’s reference to the Supreme Court’s internal document, not an enacted law, has also violated Article 5 of the Procurators Law,“Article 5 Procurators shall perform their duties objectively and impartially on the basis of facts and law.
“In handling criminal cases, procurators shall abide by the principle of nullum crimen sine lege, and respect and protect human rights, ensuring that crimes are prosecuted while protecting the non-guilty from criminal prosecution.”
The principle of nullum crimen sine lege states that one should not be punished unless s/he committed an act that was criminalized by law. Since Falun Gong has never been criminalized in China, the prosecution of practitioners has no legal basis.
Pinning the Blame on Others
In Ms. Liu’s case, her local Lianxi District Procuratorate cited the Supreme Court’s internal document asking courts at various levels to study the “NPC Resolution” and the “Interpretation.” As a matter of fact, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate has also issued a similar document around the same time, asking procuratorates at various levels to study and follow the “NPC Resolution” and the “Interpretation.”
It’d be natural for Lianxi District Procuratorate to cite the internal document issued by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, but it directed Ms. Liu’s husband to the one issued by the Supreme Court instead. The main reason could be that the local procuratorate was trying to pin the blame on the court system and diverted people’s attention away from the procuratorate system, even though both are equally responsible for carrying out the persecution of Falun Gong.
A Thief Crying “Stop the Thief”
The Supreme Court’s Document 1999-29 concluded, “Through various forms of publicity and the handling of specific cases, we must educate the masses to deepen their legal knowledge and help them understand cult organizations’ dangerous nature of being anti-science, anti-humanity, anti-society, and anti-government.”
Interestingly, the descriptions actually fit the CCP regime quite well. For example,
“Through various forms of publicity”: The CCP has produced countless lies to defame Falun Gong in the past 23 years to stir up hatred and disseminated its hate propaganda through news, law enforcement, entertainment, literature, and even school textbooks.
“Handling of specific cases”: the authorities have recklessly abused laws to frame, detain, and sentence Falun Gong practitioners. Phrases like “Don't talk to me about the law” have become a norm.
“Anti-science, anti-humanity, anti-society”: Countless testimonies from Falun Gong practitioners and several large-scale surveys have shown that Falun Gong has tremendous benefits in keeping fit and improving character. But the CCP simply ignored the positive impact of Falun Gong on society. So the CCP is anti-science and anti-society. The CCP’s detention, torture, brainwashing, psychiatric abuses, and forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners have been considered by human rights advocates and legal experts as crimes against humanity.
A Totalitarian Regime With No Judicial Independence
Because of the CCP’s totalitarian nature, the legal system in China is simply a rubber stamp. Zhou Qiang, the head of the Supreme People’s Court of China, said at a conference in Beijing in January 2017, “We should resolutely resist the erroneous influence from the West: ‘constitutional democracy,’ ‘separation of powers' and ‘independence of the judiciary.’ We must make clear our stand and dare to show the sword.”
Such remarks shocked Western legal experts. “This statement is the most enormous ideological setback for decades of halting, uneven progress toward the creation of a professional, impartial judiciary,” Jerome A. Cohen, director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at New York University, wrote, “It has already provoked some of China’s most admirable legal scholars to speak out in defiance, and, despite their prominence, I fear not only for their academic freedom and careers but also for their personal safety.”
The Chinese Constitution is supposed to uphold the most basic rights of the Chinese people, however, it has set the tone for the political system overriding judicial independence. In Article 1 of the 2018 version of the Constitution, it wrote, “The socialist system is the fundamental system of the People’s Republic of China. Leadership by the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is prohibited for any organization or individual to damage the socialist system.” No wonder judicial branches, as well as other government agencies, are rubber stamps of the CCP.
Taken together, it is clear that the CCP has been abusing the law to persecute innocent Falun Gong practitioners for their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. In fact, all the documents and policies mentioned above have become evidence that supports the CCP’s violation of the law. In the meantime, during the battle of good and evil, everyone is also facing the choice of blindly following the CCP to suppress the innocent or breaking free from the CCP to avoid sinking with the regime. After all, rejecting the CCP will lead both China and the rest of the world to a better future.
Related Article in Chinese:江西九江濂溪区检察院以99年法院通知批捕善良妇女
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