A Sydney woman allegedly imprisoned and tortured for eight months in China is
suing the country’s former president Jiang Zemin in the NSW Supreme Court.
Bankstown
artist Zhang Cuiying, 42, today formally began her lawsuit against the former
leader and his “610 Office”, alleging they were responsible for her
“brutal torture” at a Chinese detention centre.
Ms Zhang said
she was arrested in March 2000 for speaking out against Zemin’s persecution of
Falun Gong practitioners, and spent eight months in prison before the Australian
government intervened to have her freed.
It was the fourth time she had
been arrested, she said.
Ms Zhang said she was chained with heavy shackles
and forced to work 10 hours every day for eight months, sharing a “damp,
dark cell” with a mental patient.
“Bruises covered my entire body
and the pain made me unable to sleep,” she said, speaking through an interpreter,
outside the court.
“The skin all over my body began to rot and fester,
and since I refused to give up Falun Gong practice, the guards put me into the
quarters for male prisoners to humiliate me.”
A prison guard sent a
letter to her husband who then appealed to the federal government, she said.
Only
then, she said, did the Australian Consulate intervene to secure her freedom.
The
civil action against Jiang and his office was first filed in the NSW Supreme Court
on September 15 and was today stood over, pending further legal advice, until
February 28 next year.
Ms Zhang’s solicitor, Shanny Su today told the court
the action had been served but Jiang had refused to acknowledge and accept the
service.
The 610 Office – or Chinese Falun Gong control office – had received
and acknowledged the claim, Ms Su said.
Neither defendants were represented
in court today.
Ms Zhang said the action was not about the damages but bringing
Jiang to account.
“It is for upholding justice that I’m taking Jiang
Zemin to court for his grievous violations of human rights and crimes against
humanity,” she said.
The Australian case was one of 46 lawsuits currently
filed against Jiang in 26 countries, Ms Su’s representative Elizabeth Higgins
said.
“It’s part of the biggest human rights case in the world since
World War I,” Ms Higgins said.
– AAP
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Chinese-leader-sued-in-Sydney-court/2004/12/10/1102625516402.html?oneclick=true
Posting date: 11/Dec/2004
Original
article date: 10/Dec/2004
Category: Media Report
