(Minghui.org) As soon as the third hearing of Mr. Liu Jianping was adjourned, his mother presented a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin for him to sign. Their action drew immediate attention from both the court officials and audience members. One court worker commented: “You should indeed sue Jiang Zemin! I hope you can restore your name soon.”

Mr. Liu was arrested from home on July 5, 2014 when two other residents from Weiyuan City, Sichuan Province were also seized that same night. All three saw their homes ransacked and personal belongings confiscated.

Their only “crime” was their production and dissemination of materials exposing the persecution of Falun Gong, which Jiang, the former Chinese dictator, launched 16 years ago.

Weiyuan City Court tried the three practitioners jointly a total of three times. During the first two hearings on December 3, 2014 and April 26, 2015, the practitioners pointed out that the persecution has lacked legal basis from the onset, as there has never been any law that criminalizes Falun Gong. They demanded to be acquitted, but the judge said: “We cannot decide whether you have committed a crime or not; we have to report this to higher authorities.”

The third hearing on June 9, 2015 saw the prosecutor using Falun Gong materials seized from the practitioners' homes as evidence against them and proposing to sentence them to prison. The practitioners reiterated that it is their constitutional right to freedom of belief and freedom of press, and that there was nothing wrong with their sharing with the public information about the persecution of Falun Gong.

The judge was unable to refute the practitioners' arguments and quickly adjourned the session, only to see Mr. Liu Jianping sign the lawsuit paperwork his mother presented to him.

Mr. Liu and his mother are suing Jiang Zemin for launching the persecution of Falun Gong and causing tremendous suffering to countless practitioners like him.

Liu Jianping, Liu Cuirong (no relation), and Huang Shengkui remain detained at local detention centers following their arrest.

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.