CHICAGO - A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by China's banned Falun Gong spiritual movement accusing former President Jiang Zemin of waging a campaign designed to suppress the group.
U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly based his decision late Friday on the doctrine of "sovereign immunity," under which courts can exempt foreign leaders from civil lawsuits in the United States if the government advises.
Falun Gong attorney Terri Marsh said Monday she was considering asking Kennelly to reconsider.
Falun Gong has attracted millions of followers with a mixture of calisthenics and doctrines drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and the ideas of its founder, Li Hongzhi, a former government clerk.
China banned Falun Gong in 1999, describing it as an "evil cult." It has arrested many Falun Gong followers. Practitioners say a number of them have been tortured and in some cases murdered.
In October 2002, while Jiang was visiting Chicago, a police official guarding him was served with the lawsuit, which said a number of Falun Gong practitioners now living in Chicago and elsewhere in the United States had been subjected to human rights abuses.
Neither Jiang nor the Chinese government responded to the suit. Instead, the U.S. government intervened as a friend of the court, arguing that the suit should be dismissed on the grounds of sovereign immunity.
China's government has denied allegations that any of the movement's followers have been tortured or slain.