| Published: Sunday 4th December 2005 |
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The following is translated from an evening newspaper in Belgium:
Renowned human right lawyer Mr. Beauthier took over a new case regarding harassing phone calls, which apparently had something to do with Chinese spies. This lawyer is practising in Brussels, and is representing two Falun Gong practitioners; one is a citizen of Belgium, and the other a Chinese political refugee living in Brussels. Both of them alleged that they have been harassed by some annoying telephone calls, and the numbers showed on the telephone set indicated that these harassing calls were made in Mainland China. Is it a minor case? If it had not been for a former Chinese police officer offering his testimony, the true situation and the horrendous atmosphere would not have been easy for people to understand.
This former Chinese police officer is Mr. Hao Fengjun, who used to be an officer in Tianjin City’s Public Security Bureau. He said that he had worked with the “6-10 Office” which was set up exclusively for the crackdown on the Falun Gong movement. In 2001 he took a fifty-year-old woman to a mental hospital for treatment, and this woman was persecuted by the police of the “6-10 Office” in the wake of an arrest operation. “My duty was supposed to protect the general public, as opposed to apprehending or abusing Falun Gong practitioners with cruel torture.” “It is against my conscience.” said Mr. Hao. He thus defected to Australia during an overseas trip.
Hao Fengjun’s testimony proves Falun Gong practitioners’ deplorable situation in China. Falun Gong was outlawed by the Chinese regime in 1999, which was immediately followed by a series of extremely brutal activity, apprehension, incarceration and cruel torture. These acts have been publicly condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other international organisations.
It was not the first time for lawyer Beauthier to defend Falun Gong practitioners. In 2003, six Falun Gong practitioners filed a lawsuit against former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, former Vice President Li Lanqing and former Deputy Director of the “6-10 Office” Luo Gan. Failing to meet the requirements concerning international jurisdiction stipulated in a Belgium’s newly enacted law, the case didn’t attain the expected result. But lawyer Beauthier stated that it is confirmed that China’s persecution has been extended overseas.
Like Ms. Shi Yuhong, Belgian citizen Mr. Nicklaus House has also been harassed by the annoying telephone calls day and night. Sometimes it was in Chinese, and sometimes in English. Ms. Shi described, “All the content of the phone recordings is nothing more than the Chinese Communist regime’s propaganda, or very loud music that may suddenly frighten one to jump out of bed at midnight.” “This kind of harassment can make one feel there’s nowhere to hide.”
According to Mr. Hao Fengjun, this kind of harassment is one of the typical persecution methods, with which people are bombarded with tens of hundreds of calls until they are on the verge of mental brake down. Mr. Nicklaus House was afraid that it might have some negative impact on his trip to Hong Kong. What’s even worse, due to the on-going economic pressure, he was afraid that the persecution against Falun Gong may be extended to other developing countries and that he may even be persecuted physically one day as well.
According to the numbers shown on the telephone set, one of the annoying calls Mr. Nicklaus House received was made from Mainland China. With that, this case may be accepted by the court in Belgium. Nonetheless, lack of a relevant agreement between Brussels and Beijing that may allow the Belgian authorities to conduct investigation in China, the odds to win the case would be slim. However, lawyer Beauthier stated that the issue concerning protection of Falun Gong practitioners may be solved politically. Is that Utopian thinking? He reminded us, “When dealing with Pinochet case, I was once told that we could do nothing.”
Mr. Beauthier was one of the lawyers who had successfully brought Chile’s former dictator Pinochet to justice.
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Chinese version available at http://www.yuanming.net/articles/200511/46521.html