Statement from WOIPFG to Support the Lawsuit against Shi Honghui
Two Falun Gong practitioners in New York filed a complaint with the United State District Court for the Southern District of New York on October 22, 2009 against Defendant Shi Hongwei, the Secretary of CCP committee and the Superintendent of Re-education-through-Labor System in Guangdong Province. The professional process server confirmed the Defendant’s identity and delivered the summons to Shi Honghui in person, at 11:10 A.M, while he was about to board a touring ferry with a group of people at Pier 16 in New York city. Defendant Shi Honghui was officially served with process upon his acceptance of a copy of the summons and complaint. That the Defendant threw the legal papers down after he was officially served is irrelevant. Under New York state and federal law, the Defendant has been adequately and appropriately served with process.
The two plaintiffs are both female practitioners from Guangdong province. They both had been illegally detained and subjected to torture and persecution at the Chatou Women’s Labor Camp in Guangdong Province, because they refused to renounce their belief in Falun Gong. Shi Honghui, as the person in charge of labor camps in Guangdong province, is liable for the torture Falun Gong practitioners under several legal theories that include command responsibility, conspiracy, joint criminal enterprise and aiding and abetting. Defendant Shi Honghui cannot invoke immunity under the legal standards of U.S law, as his acts were not authorized by the Chinese state. Instead they were carried out in violation of the powers and authority reserved for the different branches of government in China and in direct violation of the individual rights reserved for the Chinese people. He must be held personally liable for his misconduct.
The plaintiffs allege that the Defendant is liable for several violations of the law of nations, including torture, genocide, violation of the right to life, right to liberty, security of the person, right to be free of arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom to hold opinions without interference and to associate freely.
During the past several years, WOIPFG has been collecting material facts and evidence of the role of all Chinese communist cadres involved in major ways in the persecution of Falun Gong. Shi Honghui’s name had been listed on WOIPFG’s investigation report list as among the major communist party perpetrators in Guangdong province. Based on WOIPFG tracking system, our investigators knew he would be visiting the United States, helped the Plaintiffs and other interested parties locate him to ensure that he would be properly served with legal process. Our up to date investigations also enabled us to provide the Plaintiffs with evidence of the Defendant’s crimes. In addition, when Shi and his colleagues came back to the 16th Pier after they took the ferry tour, WOIPFG investigators and representatives shared information about this case publicly to make clear that all criminals and suspects actively involved in the persecution of Falun Gong are on under investigation and surveillance; all will be brought to justice.
The Reeducation-through-Labor system in China deprives Chinese citizens of their right to liberty and due process through an extrajudicial system of detention that can last as long as three years, and which may be extended for an additional year without any legal procedures and in direct violation of Chinese law. The labor camp system has become a notorious private tool for the CCP to persecute Falun Gong. According to the 2008 Annual Human Rights report from the U.S. Department of State, over 50% of detainees in China’s labor camps are Falun Gong practitioners. At least a hundred different methods of torture have been applied to innocent Falun Gong believers in the labor camp system in China, notwithstanding the fact that China ratified the Convention against Torture. The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners not only violates many of the international treaties and agreements China had signed, it’s also a violation of China’s own constitution and laws. Thus, all perpetrators of torture and persecution must be held personally liable for their crimes. The people of China support the work of WOIPFG. In response to our request for evidence about the details of the persecutory campaign waged against Falun Gong believers, including the role of the judicial system itself, the Chinese people have sent relevant information and evidence to help WOIPFG and other good people stop the persecution of Falun Gong believers in China.
WOIPFG will continue to fulfill our mission -- To investigate the criminal conduct of all institutions, organizations, and individuals involved in the persecution of Falun Gong; to bring such investigations, no matter how long it takes, no matter how far and deep we have to search, to full closure; to exercise fundamental principles of humanity; and to restore and uphold justice in society.
World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong
Tel: 1-347-448-5790; Fax: 1-347-402-1444
P.O. Box 84, New york, NY 10116
Website: http://zhuichaguoji.org/en
