Statement from Hong Kong Practitioners Regarding the Trial

June 16, 2002

Press release to all media:

The trial of Hong Kong Falun Gong practitioners for peacefully sitting-in outside of the Liaison Office of the Chinese Government will open at 9:00 am at Western Magistracy on June 17. The sixteen accused practitioners strongly deny the false charges made against them by the authorities and will clarify the truth in court.

This political persecution has aroused concerns from governments throughout the free world as well as from NGOs. It has been reported that the Swiss Government is going to have its delegate observing in courtroom. In support of the cause of the local Falun Gong practitioners, some international human rights organizations, including the Swiss Section of International Society for Human Rights, and ACAT-Switzerland, have written to the Hong Kong SAR Government to urge it to drop the charges against the 16 innocent practitioners.

The 16 accused practitioners are Swiss practitioners Eric Bachmann, Roland Isenschmid, LAM Duy Quoc, Simone Claudia Schlegel-Grunefelder, and Hong Kong residents CHEE Fei-ming, CHAU Sing, LAM Chi-for, Jenny Lee, LAU Wai-hing, LAU Yuk-ling, LU Jie, TSANG Hau-sim, TSE Lai-sim, TSO Chi-sin, WONG Yiu-hing, YEUNG Mei-wan. On 14 March, 2002, when these people were holding a small-scale peaceful appeal on the wide pavement outside the front gate of the Chinese Liaison Office, in protest of the Jiang regime's brutal torture of mainland practitioners and urgently calling for their rescue, they were forcefully removed by the Hong Kong Police, using the excuse of "obstruction." Later, 16 practitioners were charged with obstruction, 9 with obstructing police in carrying out their duties, and 3 with assaulting police officers. Then, the charge of obstructing police in carrying out their duties was added on to 9 practitioners instead of the original three.

Hong Kong Falun Gong practitioners point out that this is just another incident of the Jiang regime's suppression of overseas practitioners by utilizing police and state mechanisms abroad, as has happened in Iceland, and earlier in Russia, Germany, Indonesia and other places. However, the pressure from the Chinese dictator imposed on the Hong Kong Government is far more direct than that of other regions overseas.

In accordance with Hong Kong's basic Law, Falun Gong practitioners, the same as other Hong Kong citizens, shall enjoy the freedoms of speech, assembly, belief and rights so on so forth, without any unlawful infringement. Their peaceful, rational, solemn and orderly appeal outside of the Chinese Liaison Office was justified, reasonable and legal. However, the Hong Kong authority's violent arresting and framed-up prosecution against them has apparently originated from the pressure of Mainland authorities or their agents, and is not based on facts or legal evidence. Such actions have seriously violated the human rights and dignity of peaceful appealing citizens.

Many facts show that the Jiang regime's exporting of its suppression and persecution against innocent people overseas, through the pernicious means of pressuring foreign governments, secret monitoring, stealing intelligence, hiring troublemakers, fabricating stories and inciting hatred, has caused severe and in-depth damage to free societies who respect human rights and the rule of law. At the same time, it has been eroding and crumbling Hong Kong's autonomy under the "One country, two systems". This trial in Hong Kong is not only a test of Hong Kong's judicial system, which has long been respected as independent and fair, but also the "One country, two systems" rule promised by China to the world.

We call for all countries, NGOs and kind-hearted people who support peace and justice to pay attention to the developments in this trial and assist the Hong Kong SAR Government to correct its mistakes, to restore justice, and to repair the damage that has been done.