Chinese Official Shi Honghui Sued for Human Rights Violations

Shi Honghui has been in charge of the labor camps in China’s Guangdong province since 2000. Now, he’s being sued in the U.S. for his alleged role in the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in his jurisdiction.

According to the class action suit, Shi’s job is to set policy for and implement Guangdong’s labor camp system to monitor, suppress, and eradicate Falun Gong.

Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual practice that’s been brutally persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Wang Zhiyuan from the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong says Chinese labor camps have become a tool for the regime’s oppression.

[Wang Zhiyuan, WOIPFG]:
“China’s Bureau of Labor Reforms has long been used as a private machine by the Chinese Communist Party to persecute Falun Gong and the wider public. Labor camps can detain people without any legal process, and the detention can last longer than three years. All kinds of torture are carried out in the labor camps. Since 1999, countless Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured after being kidnapped and sent to labor camps. In Guangdong alone, 71 Falun Gong practitioners have died from the persecution.”

Crystal Chen is a Chinese refugee who now lives in New York. She says she was tortured in one of Shi Honghui’s labor camps for five years because she practices Falun Gong. She and other Falun Gong practitioners filed a class action lawsuit against Shi in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The complaint was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victims Protection Act, which enable victims of torture overseas to sue for redress in U.S. courts.

Last Thursday, they served Shi Honghui with a court summons while he was on vacation in Manhattan. Wang Zhiyuan, who witnessed the service, says Shi appeared panicked and threw the summons to the ground.

Since the persecution of Falun Gong began ten years ago, Chinese Communist officials responsible for carrying it out have faced similar lawsuits around the world.

In 2004, then-Beijing Mayor Liu Qi was sued in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco for his role in persecuting Falun Gong. The court determined him to be liable for torture carried out against Falun Gong practitioners by police under his administration.

(NTDTV)