“I, myself, was enjoying a free life before the persecution broke out in 1999 - we practiced every day freely in the morning before going to work; all the people enjoyed and benefited from the practice.”
That was how Mr Ming Zhao, a 39 year old IT professional now living in Dublin with Irish nationality, recalls his life in Beijing, before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) decided to wage a campaign of lies and hatred to persecute and eradicate all Falun Gong practitioners in China.
With the news that Li Changchun, a high ranking CCP official, was stopping off in Ireland for two days on his way to visit Iran, several Falun Gong practitioners took the opportunity to file a criminal complaint against Li Changchun for his role in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China as Secretary General of the Party of Guangdong Province and the Politburo Standing Committee Propaganda and Media Officer.
Based on evidence linking the Defendant to crimes of torture, extrajudicial killing, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and genocide, the Irish Criminal Court accepted the complaint at around 4:00 PM on September 27th, 2010.
According to the complaint filed, as Guangdong Province Party Secretary, the Defendant served as one of the key architects of the attempted systematic elimination of Falun Gong in Guangdong province.
It has been publicised in several reports that in 2001, Mr Li Changchun formed the “Office 610”, Guangdong Province’s Gestapo-like team, to micromanage and carry out the campaign of genocide and persecution against Falun Gong believers within Guangdong.
Another string to Li Changchun’s bow was his initiation of the use of “blacklists” to enable Office 610 agents and Public Security officers to identify and find members of the religious group in Guangdong.
According to the complaint, Mr Li Changchun authorised, directed and enabled the 610 Office to send hundreds of Falun Gong believers in Guangdong to “Re-Education Through Labour” camps where they were publicly humiliated, interrogated, brainwashed, tortured or murdered.
Mr Ming Zhao was subjected to this kind of torture in 2000, when he returned to Beijing on a short break during his studies in Trinity College Dublin. Little did he think that 1 year, 10 months later he would be rescued from a Labour camp by “Friends of Zhao Ming”, a humanitarian group formed in Dublin to secure his release.
It is for this reason that Ming Zhao feels obliged to do for others what was done for him.
Much of the evidence set forth in the complaint made in Dublin is based on Li Changchun’s speeches, where he not only acknowledges his guilt, but brags about it as he encourages other party cadres in China to follow his lead.
Mr Ming Zhao, who filed the complaint on behalf of the Irish Falun Dafa Association, said: “But for Li Changchun’s supervision, management and authorisation of the widespread campaign of propaganda (and violence) in China, the injuries of the complainants would not have occurred in the same way, if at all.”
The complaint concluded by calling upon the Court to swear out a warrant for Li Changchun’s arrest, and take him into custody so that he could not leave the jurisdiction of Ireland until his role in the alleged criminal violations could be assessed, and formal charges could be brought against him for his role in the offence of conspiracy, joint criminal enterprise, aiding and abetting or in another way facilitating the crimes of torture and genocide.
At the hearing held at approximately 5:00 PM, the judge decided that the court did not have jurisdiction over the case, and declined to swear out the arrest warrant which would have taken Li Changchun into custody. He has since left Ireland.
