江天勇律師在美國國會的證詞

北京時間：2009-11-04 08:08

【新唐人2009年11月4日訊】最近在美國訪問的江天勇律師，10月29日在美國國會，就中國法治與宗教信仰的現狀發表證詞.

江天勇律師就中國法治與宗教信仰的現狀在美國國會的證詞

各位尊敬的美國國會議員、女士們、先生們：

大家好！

我叫江天勇，來自於中國大陸，是一名律師，所承辦的案件中有一大部分是關涉宗教信仰的，人們通常稱為“敏感案件”。同時，我也是一個基督徒，需要與主內弟兄姊妹一起聚會讚美神。下面我談三件事，希望有助於各位了解中國的法治與宗教信仰的實際情況。

第一件事。2007年的母親節，5月13日下午。我和我主內的弟兄姊妹一起在北京的一個私人場所、一個大房間內聚會﹔我們禱告、我們唱歌讚美神。突然，房間裡闖進來近三十人，除十幾個穿警察服裝外，其他都是便裝。其中一個人強迫我們停下來留在原地不能動，更不能離開﹔他們宣稱是北京市宗教管理局的執法人員，並說我們的聚會非法，予以立即取締！他們查封了我們的奉獻箱﹔他們中許多人對我們錄像、拍照，詳細登記我們每一個人的身份信息。之後對我們每一個人進行了長時間的訊問。我是凌晨1點多離開的。從那一天到2009年的7月，我沒有地方可以聚會。這是我作為基督徒的經歷。

第二件事。2009年4月16日我與李方平律師成為布絨朗活佛的辯護人，他是四川省甘孜藏族自治州布絨朗寺和亞丁寺（Ya-tseg）的主持，被控以非法持有槍支彈藥罪和職務侵佔罪。但經過詳細的調查，我們了解到活佛被控告另有原因。2008年3.14事件之後，藏區的人們被政府組織進行“愛國主義教育運動 ”，僧侶和尼姑們被強迫在寺院裡學習，長時間不能出去。他們教育的內容是甚麼呢？他們被要求批判達賴喇嘛，要罵他是豺狼，要與他劃清界限﹔人人被要求以踐踏達賴喇嘛的畫像和對畫像吐唾沫的方式過關。布絨朗寺和亞丁寺的二百多個尼姑無法忍受，2008年5月14日衝出寺院到街上遊行，要求宗教信仰自由。活佛作為這兩個寺院的負責人被拘捕了。2009年4月21日該案進行了審理，律師和活佛本人都否認控罪。此案至今沒有結果﹔但我們擔心活佛的命運。

第三件事。從2008年開始我在近20起法輪功案件中為法輪功修煉者辯護。我發現對法輪功的打壓的確是嚴重的人權災難。他們或僅僅因為修煉被抓捕，或僅僅因為給別人修煉的書籍被審判，或僅僅因為散發揭露迫害事實的材料被判刑。他們往往面臨酷刑，有專門的資金、專門的地點、專門的人員和專門的工具對法輪功修煉者實施酷刑。遼寧錦州的黃成，開庭審判時身上的人人都能看見﹔遼寧瀋陽的陳新野被打骨折﹔黑龍江哈爾濱的栗志剛被往鼻孔裡灌芥末水﹔四川成都的周慧敏被打死。在法輪功案件上法律往往被踐踏，被告人的的辯護權難以得到保障。河北唐山孫鋒利被剝奪會見律師的權利﹔河北邯鄲的葛何菲在不讓律師介入的情況下被判刑。法輪功案件中，律師被禁止就法律的適用和事情的性質進行辯護，禁止談憲法和人權﹔只能說被告人做沒做某事。

我和中國的其他人權律師因捍衛宗教信仰自由的案件受到來自官方的騷擾、打壓和迫害也越來越嚴重。

2006 年、2008年我的律師執業證年檢註冊兩次受到北京市司法局的刁難﹔2009年7月9日我的律師執業被北京市司法局宣告註銷。我們經常被國保秘密警察跟蹤、騷擾、威脅﹔在特殊的日子或有外國領導人訪問中國時，我們經常會被禁止出門，比如下個月歐巴馬總統訪華時我將被迫呆在家裏﹔我們的家人也常被騷擾﹔司法局常找我們談話，禁止我參與某些案件﹔我們的房東因承受不了秘密警察的壓力拒絕繼續租房給我們，我們常常被迫搬家。

因辦理涉及宗教信仰的案件，李和平、黎雄兵、王雅軍、唐吉田、劉巍、溫海波、謝燕益、韋良玥、張星水等律師和我至今沒有通過所謂的“年度考核”，我們無法繼續從事律師工作。

中國包括律師在內的法律人、家庭教會成員和其他宗教信仰者沒有因為面臨打壓而放棄自己的權利。中國的公民社會在發育並將走向成熟，我認為在座的各位應該對此保持信心。我們也非常需要在座各位及美國政府的關注和支持。

我建議：

1、更加關注和支持中國民間力量，比如在美國國務院的國際訪問者項目（International Visitor Leadership Program）中讓更多維權律師參與﹔

2、歐巴馬總統或其他政界人士在訪華期間能夠會見維權人士並參加家庭教會的聚會﹔

3、歐巴馬總統訪華期間能夠向胡錦濤主席、溫家寶總理爭取劉曉波、陳光誠、胡佳、郭飛雄、郭泉恢復自由，也非常希望歐巴馬總統此行能夠了解高智晟律師到底身在何處﹔

4、美國駐華使館官員更經常更廣泛的與維權人士、異議人士來往，並且邀請他們參加使館舉行的一些活動。

謝謝！

江天勇

2009年10月29日

“Written Testimony submitted to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on the rule of law in China”

By Mr. Jiang Tianyong on Oct 29, 2009 Cannon 210 HOB

Dear members of U.S. Congress, ladies and gentlemen:

How are you? My name is Jiang Tianyong and I come from mainland China. I am an attorney and most of the cases I take on involve religious belief, and are usually referred to as “sensitive cases.” I am also a Christian and as such a person, I need to worship God in gatherings with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am going to discuss three things, and I hope I can give you an idea of the actual status of the rule of law and religious belief in China.

The first one is an event I would like to share: On the afternoon of Mother』s Day of May 13, 2007, I was praying and singing hymns of God with my brothers and sisters in Christ gathering. It was in a private large room in Beijing. Suddenly, several dozen people broke into the room. Only about a dozen of them were wearing uniforms and the rest were in plain clothes. One of them forced us to stop our activities and to remain still where we were. We were not allowed to leave the place. The intruders claimed that they were law enforcement officers from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Religious Administration. They said that our gathering was an illegal one and abolished it immediately! They sealed our donation box and took videos and photos of many of us. They also recorded the identification information of every one of us. After that, they conducted a long interrogation. It was after 1 AM that I left the site. Between that day and July 2009, I had no place where I could meet with my fellow Christians in a gathering. This is my experience in China as a Christian.

The second event occurred on April 16, 2009. Attorney Li Fangping and I became the defense counsels for the living Buddha from Burongna Convent in Tibet that day. The living Buddha is the abbot of Burongna Convent and Ya-tseg Convent in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Ganzi of Sichuan province. He was charged with weapons possession and functionary embezzlement. However, after a detailed investigation, we found the living Buddha was actually charged for some other reasons. After the March 14 Incident in 2008, people in the Tibetan prefecture were organized by the government to engage in a “Campaign of Education in Patriotism.” Monks and nuns were forced to study in the convents and were kept there for a long time. What, then, was the content of their education? They were commanded to criticize the Dalai Lama and to call him a jackal and to break away from him. Every one of them was commanded to trample on the portrait of Dalai Lama and spit on the portrait before he or she was allowed to pass the test. Given such a situation, over 200 nuns from Burongna and Ya-tseg Convents could no longer endure this, and they finally broke out of the convents on May 14, 2008 and went to protest in the streets, demanding religious freedom. As the living Buddha was the leader of these two convents, he was arrested. His case was tried on April 21, 2009 and both of the attorneys and the living Buddha denied the charges. There is still no result from the case, but we worry about the fate of the living Buddha.

The third piece of evidence I would like to share is that starting from 2008, I began to defend Falun Gong practitioners in nearly 20 Falun Gong cases. I have found that the crackdown on Falun Gong is indeed a serious human rights disaster. My clients were arrested simply because of the practice. They were tried simply because they gave practice books to others. Some of them were sentenced to imprisonment just because they distributed materials that expose the facts of persecution. They often face torture and there are special funds, special locations, special people and special tools in torturing Falun Gong practitioners. When Huang Cheng from Jinzhou, Liaoning province was tried in court, everybody could see the scars on his body; Chen Xinye from Shenyang, Liaoning province suffered a bone fracture in the beatings; they poured mustard water into the nostril of Li Zhigang from Harbin, Heilongjiang province; Zhou Huimin from Chengdu, Sichuan province was beaten to death.

When it comes to Falun Gong cases, the law is often trampled and it is hard to safeguard the defendant』s right to defense. Sun Feng from Tangshan, Hebei province was deprived of his right to meet with his attorney; Ge Hefei

from Handan of Hebei province was sentenced while his attorney was forbidden to intervene. In Falun Gong cases, attorneys are forbidden to defend their clients on the proper application of law or the nature of the incident. They are forbidden talk about the Constitution or human rights. They are only allowed to say whether the defendants did something or did not do something.

I and other human rights attorneys in China are suffering an increasing level of harassment, suppression, and persecution [by the government], because we serve as defense counsels in cases of safeguarding the freedom of religious belief.

Respectively in 2006 and 2008, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice intentionally fabricated complications in the annual inspection and registration of my attorney』s license. On July 9, 2009, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice announced that my attorney』s license was revoked. We [human rights legal defenders] are often stalked, harassed and threatened by the secret police from Domestic Defense Protection Squad. On special occasions or when foreign leaders visit China, we are often forbidden to leave our residences. For example, when President Obama visits China next month, I will be forced to stay at home. My family members are also often harassed and people from the Bureau of Justice often come to talk with us and forbid me to get involved in some cases. Because our landlords can』t endure the pressure from the secret police, they refuse to renew our leases, and therefore we often are forced to move out.

Because we handle cases involving religious belief, Li Heping, Li Xiongbing, Wang Yajun, Tang Jitian, Liu Wei, Wen Haibo, Xie Yiming, Wei Liangyue, Zhang Xingshui, other attorneys and I have still not passed the so-called “annual inspection.” Therefore, there is no way we can continue to work as attorneys at this time.

However, legal professionals, including attorneys, members of house churches and other religious believers, have not abandoned their rights in face of the crackdown. The civil society in China is growing and will become more mature. I think all of you present here today should keep your confidence in this. We also need the attention and support from all of you present here today, and the U.S. government.

I propose the following:

1. We recommend that you pay more attention and give more support to the non-governmental forces in China, such as the US State Department』s International Visitor Leadership Program, so that more human rights attorneys can participate in the program;

2. We recommend President Obama and other government officials meet with human rights defenders and attend gatherings of house churches during their visit to China;

3. We recommend President Obama can talk with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao and restore the freedom of Liu Xiaobo, Chen Guangcheng, Hu Jia, Guo Feixiong and Guo Quan. We also hope that with President Obama』s visit, we will be able to know the whereabouts of Attorney Gao Zhisheng;

4. We recommend officials in the U.S. Embassy in China make contact with human rights defenders and dissidents more often and more widely, and invite them to attend some activities held at the embassy.

Thank you!

Jiang Tianyong