A federal appeals court ruling Tuesday ended a 15-year-old legal fight in the U.S. over whether a Chinese television official incited torture in his country against members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
New York rejected a request by members of the movement to file an amended lawsuit in the case.
Zhao Zhizhen, a onetime radio and television executive in
China who founded the China Anti-Cult Association, was sued in 2004 in federal court under the Alien Tort Statute, an 18th-century U.S. law that allows foreigners to sue in the U.S. over human rights abuses committed anywhere.