CHICAGO - The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion in Wei Ye, Hao Wang, Does A-F, and others similarly situated v Jiang Zemin and Office 610 on Wednesday, September 8. The Court of Appeals, in an opinion very sympathetic to the plaintiffs, affirmed the District Court’s decision, which had denied the plaintiff’s suit. The plaintiffs plan to appeal to the Supreme Court.
On October 18, 2002, Falun Gong practitioners and their families had filed a lawsuit in the Northern District Court of Illinois against defendant Jiang Zemin and China’s “610 Office,” the office set up for the purpose of carrying out a campaign of terror to eradicate Falun Gong. The suit alleged torture, genocide and other crimes against humanity. After the District Court denied the plaintiff’s suit on September 12, 2003, they appealed to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on November 14, 2003.
Although sympathetic to the appellants’ claims, the Appeals Court believes that a response to these crimes should be carried out by the Executive Branch through diplomatic channels, rather than through a decision by the Courts (“Success depends on diplomacy, not United States courts.”).
The Appeals Court’s sensitivity to the issues presented by the plaintiffs is clear throughout the opinion. For example, the Court acknowledged former President Jiang Zemin’s role in initiating the persecution, by among other things, the establishment of the unconstitutional Office 610, his issuance of the July 1999 edict banning Falun Gong, followed by arrests and alleged “farcical trials, torture, forced labor, re-education, and the killings of members.”
According to Terri Marsh, the attorney for the plaintiffs, this language, and especially the Court’s characterization of the “mock trials” of Falun Gong practitioners as “farcical” “underscores the huge gap between the rights guaranteed to the Chinese people by their Constitution and the Jiang regime’s use of the legal system not only to deprive so many Chinese citizens of these very same rights, but to torture, brainwash and exterminate them unlawfully.”
At issue in the decision is the means for handling complaints such as those of the Falun Gong practitioners, not the validity of those complaints. Crucial to the Court of Appeals decision was the doctrine of separation of powers. The Court chose to defer to the separation of powers argument presented by the Department of Justice in holding that the United States can best express its interest in ending the persecution of Falun Gong in China via diplomatic channels.
Nevertheless, the court in its decision accepted as fact the crimes the plaintiffs allege Jiang and those loyal to him perpetuated against Falun Gong.
Similarly, while the Department of Justice argued that the persecution is better handled through diplomatic interventions than court decisions, the Department of Justice agreed with the Plaintiffs as to the nature of the persecution. In oral arguments, Justice Department lawyer Douglas Letter described the persecution as “heinous.”
Jiang Zemin began the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. Directed from the top down by an agency, the 610 Office, with the power to coerce Chinese Communist Party and government officials to take part, the persecution has been systematic, brutal, and comprehensive. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Department of State’s annual country reports on China, and U.N. Special Rapporteurs, among other human rights organizations and governmental authorities, have reported widespread torture, brainwashing, and extra-judicial killings. The Falun Dafa Information Center has documented cases of pregnant women, young mothers, an infant, the elderly and the infirm suffering torture and extra-judicial killing.
The Falun Dafa Information Center reports that 1,038 Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed dead, but believes the true number is at least five times that. It also reports at least 100,000 practitioners held in China’s forced-labor camps.
This persecution lacks support within the Chinese Communist Party. As Willy Lam, CNN’s China analyst noted in September, 2001 “It is no secret that several Politburo members thought the president had used the wrong tactics… By unleashing a Mao-style movement, Jiang is forcing senior cadres to pledge allegiance to his line,"
Terri Marsh vowed to continue to use legal means to hold Jiang Zemin and the others responsible for the persecution accountable. “The persecution of Falun Gong will end. However, in the US and around the world lawyers will continue to file lawsuits against Jiang Zemin and other collaborating officials until Jiang Zemin is brought to justice. The appeal of today’s decision will be filed with the Supreme Court forthwith.”