Pressemelding: Jiang Zemin saksøkt i Tyskland for folkemord [05.12.2003]

German Falun Gong Information Centre

The following is an excerpt from a press release issued by Mr. Wolfgang Kaleck, the lawyer for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Jiang Zemin, filed on November the 24th 2003.

Punishment for Chinese human right abusers:
On November the 21st 2003, forty citizens of Germany, China, Ireland, Canada, Australia and the United States filed a lawsuit with the German Federal Prosecutors Office against the former president of China, Jiang Zemin, and other leaders who are responsible for the persecution of Falun Gong, accusing them of genocide, crimes against humanity, murder, cruel torture and grievous bodily harm to Falun Gong practitioners in China between 1999 and 2003. The eighty-six page complaint listed the names of sixteen Chinese officials who have directly or indirectly been involved in the cruel torture and grievous bodily harm to Falun Gong practitioners in detention centres and forced labour camps. Amongst other things, fifteen counts have been explained in detail.

We hope that China itself will be able to deal with this cruel torture and these death cases through legal means. In spite of the Sino-German dialogue on the rule of law, China is still far from a nation with an adequate legal system. At present, it is impossible for human rights organisations to conduct investigations or expose crimes that Chinese leaders have committed. The Internal Criminal Court is also not able to deal with crimes committed in China.

As a result, victims have filed lawsuits against China in many European countries, including Belgium, France, and Spain, as well as in the countries outside of Europe. The German International Criminal Codes brought into effect on June 26th 2002 will assist human right victims. Since this code has yet to be applied, it will take some practical steps to probe into those responsible for the crimes.

The German Federal Prosecutors Office in Karlsruhe has accepted lawsuits on counts of genocide and crimes against humanity in the past. The plaintiffs hope that the German Federal Prosecutors Office will endorse this lawsuit and no longer turn a blind eye to human rights abusers in China, launching an investigation into Jiang Zemin and other related high-ranking officials who are still at large. Since Germany has played an important role in the International Court of Justice at The Hague, the Federal German Criminal Department at the very least has the responsibility to try its best to clarify this lawsuit.
Germany should conduct further investigations, together with the law enforcement agencies in other countries, and collect the results in order to pass appropriate sentences on future Chinese human right abusers.