(Minghui.org) A prominent human rights expert, Australia's former Human Rights Commissioner Dr. Sev Ozdowski recently expressed his support of Falun Gong practitioners' taking legal action against former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin in an interview.
To date, over 103,000 individuals have filed criminal complaints with the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Court of China, charging Jiang with unlawful imprisonment, depriving citizens of their constitutional right to freedom of belief, abuse of power, and many other crimes.
Dr. Sev Ozdowski OAM (Order of Australia Medal) was the Australian Human Rights Commissioner from 2000 to 2005. He currently serves as president of the Australian Council for Human Rights Education.
Dr. Sev Ozdowski OAM, President of the Australian Council for Human Rights Education
Dr. Ozdowski was interviewed in Sydney about the criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin being filed by Chinese Falun Gong practitioners around the world. Given that China is one of a few countries in the world still ruled by communism, and where there is no rule of law, he applauded practitioners' use of the country's legal system to bring Jiang Zemin to justice.
“When you look back (in history), people win against oppression, and you will win,” he said. “Just do what you do, stay strong and continue to lodge complaints; continue demanding more human rights for yourselves!”
Dr. Ozdowski believes that the wave of criminal complaints filed against Jiang Zemin can help people in China to gain confidence in the legal system.
“Across a lot of our planet we still have got the communist party in charge; we still do not have the rule of Law,” he added. “What’s happening [with the criminal complaints] is good! It’s building people's confidence in the legal system, it’s allowing them to say what they think, but it’s far from enough. We need to go much further.” Dr. Ozdowski believes that Jiang Zemin has committed crimes against humanity, and “to him due process of the criminal law should apply.”
Dr. Ozdowski also commended Australian television station SBS TV for airing “Human Harvest” on its Dateline program. This award-winning documentary exposes the Chinese regime's harvesting organs of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience.
“It is necessary to publicly expose the crime of organ harvesting in China in order to stop it,” said Ozdowski.
In a letter of support to a rally condemning forced organ harvesting that was held in April in Sydney, Dr. Ozdowski wrote: “The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, which started in 1999, has all the hallmarks of genocide. It was well documented in a report by David Kilgour, former Canadian MP and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, and human rights lawyer David Matas that Falun Gong practitioners are killed so their corneas, hearts and lungs, livers, and kidneys could be stolen for sale to commercial customers."
Background
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.
The persecution has led to the deaths of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners over the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.
Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.
Chinese law now allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.
