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Tuesday, July 25, 2006

World Transplant Congress: Criminal complaint in Boston accuses Chinese delegates of complicity in torture


Media Advisory

HUMAN RIGHTS LAW FOUNDATION

Two Chinese doctors accused of partaking in systematic removal of organs from Falun Gong practitioners

UPDATE --one more doctor was served this morning (July 26): Shen Zhongyang-- (Boston) Dr. Terri Marsh filed a criminal complaint against two Chinese doctors attending a conference of the World Transplantation Congress (WTC) in Boston Tuesday.

The complaint, filed with the US Attorney’s Office, demands an urgent investigation into the two doctors’ participation in forced organ removal from living Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. The complaint also seeks a warrant for the defendants’ immediate arrest in order to prevent them from leaving the jurisdiction while the investigation is carried out.

The defendants, Zhonghua Klaus Chen and Tongyu Zhu, are the directors of organ transplant departments in Wuhan and Shanghai hospitals, respectively. In both of the defendants’ hospitals doctors have admitted in recorded phone conversations that the organs they are available for transplants come from Falun Gong practitioners.

Transcripts of these phone conversations are included in an investigative report recently authored by David Kilgour, former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia Pacific. In the transcript, a doctor from Zhu’s hospital in Shanghai converses with an investigator. When the caller asks if any of the organs used for transplant come from Falun Gong, the doctor replies, “all of ours are of that type.”

The removal of organs harvested from prisoners of conscience in Zhu and Chen’s hospitals violates the UN Convention against Torture (CAT), which both China and the US have ratified. The complaint’s legal basis in US law is a statute that grants jurisdiction to US courts to prosecute perpetrators of torture present in the United States, irrespective of their nationality or that of their victim.

In addition to the formal complaint, over 50 legal notices were served to other Chinese delegates to the WTC, warning of civil and criminal liability for those participating in organ harvesting. In addition to Marsh, Executive Director of the Human Rights Law Foundation, two Spanish and Taiwanese lawyers also signed the notice.

The notice concludes: ‘The undersigned human rights attorneys are aware of the ongoing nature of these acts and will continue to track and observe your conduct to determine how to proceed in this matter in the interests of justice, human dignity and all moral principles of significance to the community of Man.’

Background

The Human Rights Law Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 2005 and dedicated to the defense of human rights around the world.

Much of the evidence cited in the complaint and legal notice is drawn from a recent investigative report into allegations of organ removal from Falun Gong practitioners. The report was published by David Kilgour, former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia Pacific, and international human rights attorney David Matas.

The Kilgour-Matas report is available here.

The latest Epoch Times news on organ harvesting can be found here.

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