China is murdering members of the Falun Gong spiritual group and harvesting their organs for transplant, a panel of lawyers and experts said as they invited further investigations into a potential genocide.

Key points: The China Tribunal found crimes against humanity were committed against Falun Gong and Uyghurs

The China Tribunal found crimes against humanity were committed against Falun Gong and Uyghurs Falun Gong is a spiritual group based on meditation that China banned 20 years ago

Falun Gong is a spiritual group based on meditation that China banned 20 years ago Beijing has repeatedly denied accusations that it forcibly takes organs from prisoners of conscience

Members said they had heard clear evidence forced organ harvesting had taken place over at least 20 years in a final judgement from the China Tribunal, an independent panel set up to examine the issue.

Beijing has repeatedly denied accusations by human rights researchers and scholars that it forcibly takes organs from prisoners of conscience and said it stopped using organs from executed prisoners in 2015.

But the panel said it was "satisfied" that the practice was still taking place, with imprisoned Falun Gong members "probably the principal source" of organs for forced harvesting.

Falun Gong is a spiritual group based around meditation that China banned 20 years ago after 10,000 members appeared at the central leadership compound in Beijing in silent protest.

Thousands of members have since been jailed.

It was less clear if the Uyghur Muslim minority had been victims, the tribunal found, though it said they were vulnerable to "being used as a bank of organs".

The China Tribunal said its findings were "indicative" of genocide. ( Reuters: Fabrizio Bensch, file )

The tribunal was chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice, who worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and led the prosecution of Serbia's former president Slobodan Milosevic.

Is China harvesting organs? What is the Falun Gong, why has China branded them an "evil cult", and are their organs really being harvested? Vicky Xiuzhong Xu and Bang Xiao explain. Read more Read more

"The conclusion shows that very many people have died indescribably hideous deaths for no reason," he said in the judgement.

Chinese government regulations say human organ donation must be voluntary and without payment, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy said in London.

"We hope that the British people will not be misled by rumours," the spokesman said in an emailed statement sent before the tribunal's final judgement was released.

Scepticism about organ harvesting findings

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 6 minutes 50 seconds 6 m International Tribunal condemns 'China's hidden transplant crimes'

China in the past has said that "the organs being transplanted are in line with ethical principles" and "we insist that Chinese citizens voluntarily donate their organs after death".

Benjamin Penny, an expert of religious and spiritual movements in China and a professor at Australian National University, last year told the ABC that the shortage of hard evidence and reliance on testimonies made the situation difficult to decipher.

"My view on it is that I have not seen evidence which convinces me that is true. But I've not seen any evidence that convinces me that it's not true," Dr Penny said at the time.

"I would say that the case about organ harvesting is not proven and I don't think it will ever be proven. Because if it did ever happen, it probably stopped happening some years ago. I don't think it's going on now."

But human rights advocate David Kilgour who testified at the tribunal told the ABC's The World program that the fraught practice was getting worse.

"I was a prosecutor for 10 years. The evidence is overwhelming," he said.

"This crime is not only continuing, we document that it's in fact getting worse. The machinery that's taking organs from Falun Gong is getting greater, not smaller."

China's transplant practices examined

Falun Gong practitioners hope countries will forbid their citizens travelling to China for organ transplants. ( ABC News: Vicky Xiuzhong Xu )

The China Tribunal was set up by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China with the aim of examining whether crimes had been committed as a result of China's transplant practices.

The seven-member panel found it was "beyond doubt" that forced organ harvesting from prisoners has taken place "on a substantial scale by state-supported or approved organisations and individuals", in an interim judgement released in December.

The panel said its findings were "indicative" of genocide but it had not been clear enough to make a positive ruling, particularly since some Falun Gong prisoners had been released and profit was also a likely motive.

It noted that it was open to governments and international groups to investigate the issue further.

Crimes against humanity and torture have been committed against both the Falun Gong and the Uyghurs, it also found.

Falun Gong followers meditate in Hong Kong. China has declared the spiritual group is an "evil cult". ( Reuters: Kin Cheung, file )

Campaigners and Falun Gong members welcomed the ruling.

"Organ trafficking is often overlooked in our sector but this heinous crime needs more attention and affects us all," said a spokesman for the Human Trafficking Foundation.

Jennifer Zeng, a Falun Gong practitioner who told the tribunal she had been given blood tests and medical checks while held in a detention camp, said she hoped the tribunal's findings would prompt action.

"I hope more countries will pass laws to forbid their own citizens from going to China to do organ transplants," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"And I do hope the international world will figure out a way to stop the killing in China right now."

Reuters/ABC