(Minghui.org) Aaron Rhodes, Senior Fellow in the Common Sense Society and President of the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe, and Marco Respinti, Director-in-Charge of the human right magazine Bitter Winter, coauthored an article titled “Sanction Persecutors of Falun Gong” in the European Times on July 19, 2023.
The article was published on the eve of the 24th anniversary of persecution against Falun Gong. In the past 24 years, countless practitioners have suffered unprecedented terror and torture. More than 5,000 deaths due to the persecution have been documented and countless more remain unreported due to strict information censorship, including the victims who have been killed in the forced organ harvesting crimes.
The heinous crimes perpetrated against Falun Gong, especially the forced organ harvesting crimes, which has been extended to Uyghurs and Tibetans, have been thoroughly documented by the London-based “China Tribunal,” chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice, the former lead prosecutor at the trial of Slobodan Milošević in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
Among the deceased practitioners, the youngest was 17-year-old model student Ms. Chen Ying, of Heilongjiang Province, whose death in August 1999 was the first documented case by Minghui.org since the onset of the persecution. The eldest was an 82-year-old retired professor, Ms. An Fuzi, who died in Jilin Province Women’s Prison on May 22, 2023 while serving a three-year sentence.
The article recalled that given Falun Gong’s health benefits and spiritual teachings, it “was originally tolerated and even praised by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as a healthy practice that was good for citizens,” but the practice’s indispensable “spiritual dimension” and rapid growth eventually led the CCP to order the persecution on July 20, 1999.
The article also noted that after 24 years, the persecution remains unabated. Just in the first half of the year, a total of 3,133 arrests and harassment cases were documented, representing a 15.7% increase from the same period in 2022.
The continuing terror “obligates national governments and civil society to defend its victims and sanction its perpetrators.” said the article.
Just prior to the 24th anniversary since the onset of the persecution, Falun Gong practitioners in 44 countries submitted a list of perpetrators to their respective governments, urging them to hold these individuals accountable for the persecution. The practitioners asked their governments to bar the perpetrators and their family members from entry, and to freeze their overseas assets.
By holding the perpetrators accountable, it will “ease pressure against Falun Gong, and help prevent members of other religious minorities from suffering similar abuses.” the article noted.
The 44 countries where the practitioners submitted the list include:
*the Five Eyes Alliance, namely, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand; and*all 27 countries in the European Union, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Romania, Czech Republic, Finland, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta; and*12 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, including Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Israel, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Dominica. Among them, this is the first time that Lithuania has participated in this initiative.
The list of persecutors involves officials at various levels of government and from a number of professions across regions. The following are several examples.
* Fan Lvbing (范履冰): Director of the Prison Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Justice, former Party Committee Secretary of the Central Judicial Police Academy (National Lawyers Academy), former Director of the Research Office of the Ministry of Justice (Director of the Judicial Research Institute), and President of China Justice magazine.
* Li Rulin (李如林): Director of China Against Corruption Law Association, former Deputy Procurator-General of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, former Member of the CCP Leadership Group and Director of the Political Department at the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and former Director of the Bureau of Reeducation Through Labor at China’s Ministry of Justice.
* Liu Jiayi (刘家义): Member of the Standing Committee and Director of the Proposal Committee of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and former Secretary of the Shandong Provincial CCP Committee.
* Ye Hanbing ( 叶寒冰): Lieutenant Governor of Sichuan Province, Director of the Provincial Public Security Department, Secretary of the Party Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee (PLAC) of the Provincial Party Committee, Former Deputy Director of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department, Former Deputy Secretary of the Hangzhou Municipal Law Committee, and Former Secretary of the Party Committee, Director of the Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, and Chief Inspector.
* Li Chenglin (李成林): Deputy Governor of the Shanxi Provincial Government, Deputy Secretary of the PLAC of the Shanxi Provincial CCP Committee, Secretary of the CCP Committee and Director of the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Department, Former Secretary of the CCP Leadership Group and Chief Prosecutor of the Liaoning Provincial Procuratorate, Former Member of the PLAC of the Liaoning Provincial CCP Committee, and Former Deputy Secretary of the CCP Leadership Group and Vice President of Jilin Provincial Higher Court.
* You Quanrong (游劝荣): Secretary of the Party Leadership Group, Vice President, Acting President, and President of the Hubei Provincial High Court. Member of the PLAC of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, former Chief Procurator and Party Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Procuratorate, and former Deputy Secretary of the PLAC of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee.
* Zhang Yi (张毅): Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Chief Prosecutor of the Hainan Provincial Procuratorate, Deputy Secretary of the PLAC of the Provincial Party Committee, Former Secretary of the Party Committee and Director General of the Jilin Provincial Department of Justice, Former First Political Commissar of the Jilin Provincial Prison Administration Bureau, Former Executive Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee of the Ministry of Justice, and former Deputy Director of the Department of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Justice.
* Tan Zunhua (谭尊华): First-level Inspector of the Heilongjiang Prison Administration Bureau, Former Member of the Party Committee of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Justice, and Deputy Party Secretary and Director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Prison Administration Bureau.
* Yi Jianmin (伊建民): Member of the Party Committee of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Justice, Secretary of the Party Committee, and Director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Prison Administration Bureau.
* Li Yilong (李义龙): Deputy Secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee, Secretary of the PLAC of Wuhan, former Member of the Standing Committee of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee, former Deputy Secretary of the PLAC of the Wuhan Municipal CCP Committee, Party Secretary and Director of the Wuhan Municipal Public Security Bureau, former Deputy Director of the Hubei Provincial Public Security Department and Director of the Political Department of the Hubei Provincial Public Security Department, former Member of the Standing Committee of the Ezhou Municipal Committee of Hubei Province, former Secretary of the PLAC of the Ezhou Municipal CCP Committee, and former Director of the Ezhou Municipal Public Security Bureau in Hubei Province.
* Xue Changyi (薛长义): Member of the Party Leadership Group, Deputy Chief Prosecutor, Member of the Procuratorial Committee, Senior Prosecutor of the Henan Provincial Procuratorate, Former Chief Procurator of the Nanyang City Procuratorate of Henan Province.
* Li Qiang (李强): Deputy Governor of Ganzi Prefecture in Sichuan Province, Party Secretary and Chief Inspector of the Ganzi Public Security Bureau, Deputy Secretary of the PLAC of the Ganzi Prefecture Party Committee, and former Captain of the Domestic Security Team of the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department.
* Dong Kaide ( 董开德): Executive Deputy Secretary of Shenyang PLAC, former Director of Shenyang Municipal Bureau of Justice, and Director of the Shenyang Prison Administration.
* Tian Zhi (田志): Warden of Dongling Prison in Shenyang City, and former Director of Zhangshi Drug Rehabilitation Center in Shenyang.
* Qin Keping (秦克平): Warden and Political Commissar of Jiazhou Prison, Sichuan Province.
* Luo Jiangtao (骆江涛): Director of the Political Department of Jiazhou Prison in Sichuan Province, and former Chief of the Education Reform Section of Jiazhou Prison.
* Shao Ling (邵凌): Chief of the Education Reform Section of Jiazhou Prison, Sichuan Province.
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