The NSW Supreme Court has permitted two Chinese women to apply for a default judgment against a Chinese communist official, who they say is complicit in the torture and murder of Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) practitioners in China's Guangdong Province.
Defendant Mr Chen Shaoji, the former Party Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party of Guangdong Political and Judiciary Committee, was served legal documents last December during a visit to Australia.
Practitioners of the Falun Dafa spiritual movement claim his committee played a direct role in at least 64 deaths following torture since the Chinese Communist regime began a violent campaign against Falun Dafa in July 1999.
The two plaintiffs – Ms Yan Xia and Mrs Li Fuying − are seeking damages and costs for wrongful imprisonment, assault and battery for the torture and detention they experienced in Guangdong for their beliefs.
As Mr Chen, who is now in China, neither attended the court session nor sent a legal representative, the registrar permitted the plaintiffs to apply for a default judgment against him.
The application will be promptly submitted along with evidence in support of the judgment, says Newton Xu, a member of the plaintiff's legal team.
"In legal terms, if there is a ruling against [the defendant], it would mean if he steps into Australia next time, he will face the consequences of the ruling," Mr Xu said.
"On a broader scale, it means that the Falun Gong practitioners have successfully redressed what the communist official has done to them – persecution.
"They don't have such a legal avenue in China.
"The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit not just for themselves. It represents tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners in China denied of a voice and denied of their rights."
Serving legal documents
Three attempts were made to serve legal papers to Mr Chen during his December visit to Sydney.
The first attempt on Thursday December 7, followed an official ceremony marking a tourism agreement between the Chinese delegation and the Sydney Royal Easter Show. A woman acting on behalf of the plaintiffs handed Mr Chen legal documents after the ceremony while he was getting into his car. The documents were thrown from the car before the vehicle drove away.
A second attempt was made by a professional legal document server at a restaurant in Chinatown, where the Chinese delegation was having dinner. The server was unable to deliver the papers to Mr Chen due to the high level of security.
The following day a Chinese woman acting on behalf of the plaintiffs served the documents to Mr Chen inside the Hilton Hotel where he was staying.
"Chen Shaoji, like all the Chinese officials who have been sued," says John Deller from the NSW Falun Dafa Association, "when they're served with papers, they throw them away and sometimes overseas they've even assaulted the person who served them the papers.
"They're just trying to refuse to acknowledge that they are responsible for the torture and killing of Falun Gong practitioners, they're just trying to treat it as something that has nothing to do with them.
"This type of case brings home clearly to the public that they are responsible, they are complicit in the torture and killing of Falun Gong practitioners."
Mr Deller said it was a step forward that the court had permitted the plaintiffs to apply for a default judgment.
"That's a very healthy sign that the NSW Supreme Court can take this step," Mr Deller said.
The plaintiffs
Both plaintiffs have stories to tell or torture and mistreatment after being arrested for their beliefs in China.
Mrs Li Fuying, 78, was arrested at a Falun Dafa exercise site in July 2000 and was first held in police custody for three days, for two of which she was given no food or drink.
A month later she was taken to a detention centre, which used the torture method of sleep deprivation to force her to sign a document renouncing Falun Dafa.
Ms Yan Xie, 37, spent more than two years in a forced labour camp after being found in possession of printed materials describing the persecution of the spiritual practice.
While in detention she was handcuffed to the bars of a window at such a height as to enable her to just touch the ground. In this way, Mrs Yan was forced to either take her weight on tiptoes or hang by her wrists. She was subjected to this type of torture for an initial period of 48 hours of continuous suspension, followed by 18 hours a day for the remaining three days.
Mrs Yan says other types of torture she endured included being bound by ropes for extensive periods, forced feeding, mental brainwashing and being forced to work 16 hours each day.
Falun Gong is an exercise and meditation practice that includes a moral philosophy based on Tuthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. It became well known in China after 1992 and was practised by over 70 million Chinese according to a Chinese Government report.
Falun Gong's popularity is claimed by practitioners to be the reason behind the Communist regime's crackdown on the practice that began in July 1999.
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