(Minghui.org) Three generations of a family from Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province recently filed separate lawsuits against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin for their family's suffering since the beginning of the persecution in 1999, simply because they practice Falun Gong.
Mr. Yuan Yigong, a city government employee, was arrested four times, sentenced to three years of forced labor and fired from his job.
His wife, Ms. Shao Hong, an employee of the local branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, was arrested three times, sentenced to two years of forced labor and fired by the Bank.
Ms. Shao's mother, Ms. Liu Shuqin, was arrested four times and forced to leave her home four times to avoid persecution by local officials.
Mr. Yuan and Ms. Shao's son, Yuan Minghao, was born shortly after the persecution began. He was taken to the detention center with his mother or grandmother three times.
Their criminal complaints against Jiang were recently mailed to the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate in Beijing. Receipt of Ms. Shao Hong's complaints was acknowledged by the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
Synopsis of Mr. Yuan Yigong's Persecution
My wife was the first to practice Falun Gong in our family. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and urea in the blood, and became healthy soon after she started practicing Falun Gong. Seeing this, I joined the practice in 1997.
Alas, Jiang singlehandedly launched the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. My wife and I decided to go to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong on July 21. We were intercepted by officials and I was put under house arrest for several days.
I was arrested in mid-August, 1999 and my home was ransacked.
When I heard that a local practitioner was tortured to death in October 1999, I went with many practitioners to peacefully protest, and was arrested and beaten. I was taken to a detention center, where I was hung up by handcuffs for more than four hours. About two weeks after my wife gave birth to our son, in early December, I was released from the detention center.
My wife and I went to Beijing on December 25, 1999 to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. We were arrested, and I was sentenced to three years of forced labor and fired from my job.
Officials transferred me to the Wangcun Forced Labor Camp, where I was mentally and physically tortured. My wife lost her job, and thus life was very difficult for her and our two children.
When my wife was arrested on May 12, 2003 for distributing Falun Gong materials, I asked for her and my three-year-old son's release. Police even interrogated my three-year-old to find the source of the Falun Gong materials.
My home was ransacked on May 13. My wife was sentenced to two years of forced labor. Because of torture, my wife was mentally traumatized and had become emaciated, so she was released after nine months.
Officials from the local 610 Office and police arrested and took me to a brainwashing center on May 2, 2008. They ransacked my and my parents' home.
I was deprived of sleep for eight days and nights at the brainwashing center and released because my blood pressure was too high.
My parents could not live a peaceful life since the persecution began. My mother's health deteriorated and she passed away in 2013.
Excerpt from Ms. Liu Shuqin's Account of Her Ordeal
I went to Tiananmen Square to protest the unlawful persecution of Falun Gong with my new-born grandson and my sister on December 31, 1999. We were arrested and taken back to Zhaoyuan. I was brutally beaten on the third day of my detention.
My daughter, Shao Hong, was arrested on February 9, 2001. She was injured because she jumped from the third to the ground floor in an attempt to escape. Upon returning home, her workplace assigned people to monitor her around the clock and charged her for the cost of paying these people.
We left our home with our two little ones as soon as my daughter felt better because the harassment was intolerable.
Police arrested my husband in an effort to locate us. He was detained for three days.
The four of us were arrested at our rental home in Weiyuan City in May, 2001. My daughter was taken to a brainwashing center. Upon my release, I took my two grandchildren and left our home.
The police found us a month later. My one-and-a-half year old grandson and I were taken to a brainwashing center. I was released after a month.
After my daughter Shao Hong was arrested on May 12, 2003, the police came to my home, ransacked it and arrested me. At the police station, I was handcuffed and shackled to a metal chair overnight.
The police came to my home on December, 2007 while I was not home. They ransacked my home. I went into hiding to avoid further persecution.
My son-in-law Mr. Yuan was arrested and taken to a brainwashing center on May 2, 2008. The police came to my home, harassed me and attempted to arrest me. I escaped and left home again.
My entire family, consisting of myself, my mother-in-law who is in her upper 80s, my husband and our two little children were put under intolerable stress during the past several years.
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 in 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.
