European Court Rules Serbia Illegally Banned Peaceful Falun Gong Rally During Xi Jinping’s Visit

This is not the first time that Serbian authorities detained Falun Gong practitioners when CCP officials visited the country.

Bulgarian Falun Gong practitioners speak during a press conference at the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Press Club in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Dec. 18, 2014. NTD

The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Serbia unlawfully banned a peaceful Falun Gong rally during a 2016 visit by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping, saying the decision violated the group’s freedom of assembly.

In a judgment issued on June 2, the court found that Serbian authorities infringed on the rights of the Belgrade-based Serbian-Chinese Friendship Society (FDH), which had sought to hold public demonstrations against the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

The group applied in June 2016 to stage protests on June 17 and 18, coinciding with Xi’s state visit. Serbian officials blocked the events, citing potential risks to public order and possible counter-demonstrations. The court ruled that such concerns were “speculative” and insufficient grounds to restrict peaceful assembly under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It also found a violation of Article 13, which guarantees the right to an effective remedy.

Serbia, a member of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, relies heavily on billions of dollars in investments from China and maintains a close relationship with Beijing.

The CCP has exported its persecution of Falun Gong to Serbia. During Xi’s 2024 visit to Serbia, local authorities detained seven Falun Gong practitioners and one family member who doesn’t practice Falun Gong for more than 24 hours, only to release them after Xi left the country, according to the Falun Dafa Infocenter. An arrest warrant stated that a Falun Gong practitioner was suspected of posing a “serious threat to persons under international protection.” After Xi left Serbia, the Falun Gong practitioner was handed another document stating that the threat no longer existed.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual improvement practice based on the moral tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, and incorporates five gentle qigong exercises. According to official estimates at the time, there were 70 million–100 million people practicing Falun Gong in China before the CCP began persecuting the group in 1999.

Dejan Markovic, one of the eight people detained by local police in 2024, said in a recent interview with The Epoch Times that the June 2 ruling had finally come 10 years after they filed the case.

“A lot of things happened during those ten years,” he said.

Dejan Markovic, a Falun Gong practitioner, meditates in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 9, 2024. Courtesy of Dejan Markovic

While the delay “is not a good thing,” the ruling is “important,” he said, seeing it as a protection of “our freedom to gatherings and our right to appeal to the court.”

He recounted that, just hours before Xi’s arrival in 2024, police showed up at his home, even though he had no plan to hold any gathering at the time, and told him, “We need to bring you in.” The police took him and others to a police station but did not question them, just keeping them there, stating, “The district attorney asked us for 48 hours detention.”

This is not the first time that Serbian authorities detained Falun Gong practitioners when CCP officials visited the country. In 2014, Serbian police arrested 11 Falun Gong practitioners from Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Finland, who planned to hold peaceful demonstrations to raise awareness of the state-led forced organ harvesting in China ahead of a visit by then-Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based clearing house maintained by Falun Gong practitioners documenting the persecution.

According to a December 2014 report by Minghui.org, the arrested Falun Gong practitioners were asked to sign a declaration admitting that they had gone to Serbia to participate in illegal protests. They refused. They were denied their right to make a phone call, have an attorney, or have a translator.

Markovic said that local police know Falun Gong practitioners are peaceful people and that they even offered them help. But when Falun Gong practitioners did apply later to hold a rally, their application was rejected, with a police officer allegedly claiming that “someone very high didn’t allow it.”

Markovic recalled that in 2019, he and his daughter released a documentary, “The Blacklisted,” which highlights the harassment of Falun Gong practitioners in Serbia under communist China’s pressure. However, Serbian authorities blocked them from screening the film in several venues. Ultimately, the film was shown at a venue belonging to an Austrian company not subject to Serbian government control.

Talking about the purpose of lodging the lawsuit, Markovic said in a written statement: “We didn’t ask for any financial compensation. We just want to not be interfered during our events to raise awareness about persecution of Falun Gong in China. This is what every European citizen has.”

Regarding the impact of the June 2 court decision on their future applications for gatherings and events, Markovic remained cautious, saying, “As for effects of this ruling, this still needs to be seen.”

“Whatever their decision is [regarding future gathering applications], this [ruling] is a big thing, as Serbia is an EU candidate and should follow the rulings by the Strasbourg court,” he said.

He hopes that the ruling will make a difference, not just for Falun Gong practitioners, but for the Serbian people as well.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia, which didn’t reply by publication time.

Lin Yan and Eva Fu contributed to this report.