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.

Sophia Lam

Published: 6/3/2026, 11:55:18 PM EDT

European Court Rules Serbia Illegally Banned Peaceful Falun Gong Rally During Xi Jinping’s Visit — 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 on June 2 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.

The court found that Serbian authorities infringed on the rights of the Belgrade-based Serbian–Chinese Friendship Society, 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 Information Center. 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 practice based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. By 1999, between 70 million and 100 million people were practicing Falun Gong in China. That year, then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin ordered the eradication of the practice.

Dejan Markovic, one of the eight people detained by local police in 2024, reflected on the long process of seeking justice for the 2016 events. “A lot of things happened during those 10 years,” he told The Epoch Times.

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

Although the delay “is not a good thing,” the ruling is “important,” he said, seeing it as a protection of people's freedom to gather and right to appeal to the court.

Markovic 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. The police took him and others to a police station but did not question them, yet “the district attorney asked for 48 hours' detention,” he said.

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 forced organ harvesting in China ahead of a visit by then-Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that documents the persecution.

According to a December 2014 Minghui report, 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 and were denied their right to make a phone call, their right to have an attorney, and their right to have a translator.

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

In 2019, Markovic and his daughter released the documentary “The Blacklisted,” which highlights the harassment of Falun Gong practitioners in Serbia under pressure from communist China. However, Serbian authorities blocked screenings of the film at 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 [with] during our events to raise awareness about persecution of Falun Gong in China. This is what every European citizen has.”

Regarding the effects of the June 2 court decision on their future applications for gatherings and events, Markovic remained cautious, saying, “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 said he hopes that the ruling will make a difference, not just for Falun Gong practitioners, but for the Serbian people as well.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia did not respond to a request for comment.

Lin Yan and Eva Fu contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times