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Chinese leader sued in Sydney court
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.
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