Chinese Falun Gong activist faces court

A PROMINENT Falun Gong member from China is facing a court battle in Thailand and the risk of repatriation over allegedly entering the country illegally. 
“He can’t go back [to China] anymore because he has distributed information on the torture of Falun Gong members in China,” Kohnwilai Teppunkoonngam of the Coalition for the Rights of Refugees and Stateless Persons (CRSP) said yesterday.
Because of his activities, Song Zhiyu has caught the attention of international media. 
Kohnwilai said Song is a human-rights defender, adding that because he had been outspoken about the fate of many Falun Gong co-religionists, he had been persecuted in China from 2008-14. 
He was arrested and sent to labour camps several times, but it was only after officials called on his father with a suggestion that he abandon Falun Gong that Song decided to leave China.
Chinese authorities have treated Falung Gong as a threat to social stability. 
In March 2014, Song fled to Thailand in the hope of seeking asylum outside of China, but two years later he left Thailand along with many Falun Gong members. 
The group was bound for New Zealand but their boat capsized near Chumphon and they were arrested by Thai authorities.
“Song has to date maintained that he did not enter Thailand without permission. He insisted he got in through proper channels and carried a passport,” Kohnwilai said.
Song, who is free on bail, will attend a hearing at Chumphon Court today. 
Kohnwilai said Song had lost his passport during his detention in Thailand and had no idea which official had taken his travel papers. 
She said she hoped Chumphon Court would consider the fact that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had given Song refugee status. 
“By international protocol, he has the right to stay in Thailand while waiting for his emigration to a third country,” she said. 
According to the CRSP, Song is not the only Falun Gong member in custody in Thailand. 
Several others have been locked up at an Immigration Police facility in Bangkok, CRSP staff said, including a Chinese woman named Gu Qiao and her baby. Last March, they were on the same boat that capsized near Chumphon. 
CRSP staff suggested that authorities consider an alternative to detention for refugees, pointing out that the move would ease the government’s burden in caring for them.
Kohnwilai said some refugees would have to wait five or eight years before they could move to another country.