Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners yesterday accused the French police of violating their rights and harassing them while visiting France during the Lunar New Year.
According to the Taiwan Falun Dafa Institute, over 170 Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners went to Paris to celebrate the Lunar New Year with their fellow practitioners.
On Jan. 26, several dozen devotees were arrested simply because they were wearing Falun Gong's yellow scarves on the streets of Paris, the institute said.
"We don't understand why the French police made these arrests, and we feel sorry that the whole incident occurred," secretary-general Hung Chi-hung (洪吉弘) said.
Hung and other Falun Gong practitioners also visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday afternoon to protest the conduct of the French police and urged the ministry to communicate with the French government over the incident.
They said the arrests were an infringement of their human rights, and demanded the French government investigate the incident and apologize to Falun Gong members.
The institute's press release also quoted a Ms Fan, a reporter who had apparently been mistaken for a Falun Gong practitioner. When Fan was arrested a police officer allegedly told her: "Falun Gong is legal during normal times, but it is illegal today."
Chung Cheng (
"I arrived in Paris on Jan. 20, and I took a small Falun Gong flag with me to the Chinese Embassy on Jan. 21. At that time no police officers or employees from the embassy told me it was illegal," he said.
"But when I took the flag to the embassy again on Jan. 26, I was arrested. I asked the police why they arrested me, and they told me it was because of the flag," he said.
Chung said that he was arrested at around 7pm and taken to a police station. But the police did not put him behind bars or ask for a statement, instead leaving him to sit in the station. At around 11pm, Chung said, the police told him he was free to go, but his flag was not returned.
The arrests coincided with Chinese President Hu Jintao's (
Earlier this month, the Falun Gong group said they had been barred from joining a parade on the Champs Elysees to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
They claimed that the authorities had been acting under pressure from the Chinese embassy in Paris.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS