Imprisoned Christian Newspaper Editor, South China Church Leader Li Ying Released Five Years Early

Li Ying

JINMEN, Hubei, China, Feb. 23, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- A Christian newspaper editor and house church leader sentenced in 2002 to 15 years' imprisonment for "intentional assault" was released almost five years before the end of her prison term as the result of a world-wide letter-writing campaign and other international efforts on her behalf.

 

Li Ying, of the South China Church in Hubei province, was released on Dec. 25, 2011. She tearfully told ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu that during her 10 years in prison, thousands of letters for her were sent to the prison. She said the letters had helped to significantly improve her prison conditions and contributed to her early release. She expressed thanks to ChinaAid and asked ChinaAid to convey her gratitude to the international community and churches worldwide.

 

Li was one of the first prisoners featured by the international human rights group Voice of the Martyrs on its www.prisoneralert.com website, from where concerned Christians could write letters of encouragement to imprisoned Christians. According to Voice of the martyrs, more than 11,400 letters were written to Li through the site since 2004.

 

Li is the niece of Pastor Gong Shengliang, founder of the South China Church, one of the fastest growing house-church movements in China. She was also editor in chief of the church newspaper, South China Special Edition (Huanan Zhuankan). She had been arrested several times and had previously spent a year in prison in 1996.

 

As a condition of her release, Li was required to sign a guarantee to submit to "community correction," which included the requirement that she live only in government-appointed neighborhoods and attend government-appointed churches.

 

In December 2001, Li was one of 17 South China Church leaders who were convicted of "using a cult to undermine enforcement of the law," five of whom were sentenced to death. Li was one of them. But as a result of the ensuing international outcry, a higher court in Hubei revoked the death sentences in September 2002, citing lack of clarity about certain facts and insufficient evidence, and the Jinmen Intermediate Court in October 2002 retried the case. Instead of the crime of "using a cult," the five who had been condemned to death were convicted of "intentional assault."  

 

The five were Gong Shengliang, Xu, Fuming, Hu Yong, Gong Bangkun, and Li Ying. Gong Shengliang was also convicted of rape. Three of them -- Gong Shengliang, Xu Fuming, and Hu Yong -- were sentenced to life imprisonment.  Gong Bangkun and Li Ying were given 15-year prison terms.

Christians Injured in Attack in Vietnam Denied Medical Care

House church network leaders finally resort to private hospital far from attack site.

Special to Compass Direct News

Nguyen Thi Lan in the hospital
(Compass Direct News)

HANOI, Vietnam, November 22 (Compass Direct News) – Three Christians seriously injured during a savage attack near Hanoi on Nov. 13 have been evacuated to an undisclosed hospital in Ho Chi Minh City after several hospitals in the region refused to examine and treat them.

The attack on a church leaders’ worship service of an Agape Baptist Church (ABC) house church in Lai Tao village, Bot Xuyen commune, My Duc district left one woman, evangelist Nguyen Thi Lan, with her pelvis broken in two places and with badly damaged internal organs, according to doctors who recommended emergency surgery. Yet previously doctors at three area hospitals had told her and two other seriously injured Christians that they were fine and dismissed them, said Pastor Nguyen Cong Thanh, head of the ABC.

When doctors in Vietnam learn that religious motives play a role in violence, commonly they do not dare to treat or even examine the victims of persecution.

ABC head Nguyen Cong Thanh had rushed north from his base in Ho Chi Minh City to help the church members. The attack took place in the home of the injured Nguyen Thi Lan (not that of pastor Nguyen Danh Chau as previously reported), a recently retired Communist Party official who converted to Christianity only last year.

Within that short time she had led some 50 extended family members, friends and neighbors to the Christian faith, angering a fellow villager identified only by his given name, Khoan. Khoan and his son led a gang into her house and beat several people, leaving pastor Nguyen Danh Chau unconscious and destroying property, sources said. Khoan repeatedly threatened to kill Nguyen Thi Lan, and the gang of about a dozen threatened to kill Nguyen Danh Chau if he continued gathering Christians for worship, the sources said.

ABC head Nguyen Cong Thanh said he tried to obtain medical examinations and treatment for the worst wounded in several government clinics and hospitals in the region, but the injured were continually told they needed no care. After a nearly a week, the three most severely injured Christians still suffered acute pain, and they suspected serious internal injuries, he said.

Late Friday (Nov. 18), five days after the attack, staff members at one hospital told Nguyen Cong Thanh that there would be no examinations the next day and Sunday, and to come back on Monday (Nov. 21), when examinations were possible.  

At that point ABC leaders decided to take the two injured women and wounded man to Ho Chi Minh City, a 1,000-mile, two-hour flight south. They reasoned that even if government hospitals would not take them, they would certainly find some doctors with a conscience in private hospitals, even though such hospitals would be expensive and would require a full-payment deposit before examination and treatment.

Nguyen Thi Lan, who had not been able to eat since the attack, was admitted to a hospital immediately after her examination, as the doctors discovered her doubly broken pelvis and severely injured female organs.

Pastor Nguyen Danh Chau, who had severe bruises on his face and head, had also been kicked in his back, chest and stomach. Doctors diagnosed internal injuries to his kidneys, liver and perhaps other organs. He too was admitted for further observation and treatment. Nguyen Thi Tac, who had been hit with a steel shovel on her chest and stomach as well as her back, was also still in considerable pain, but a medical examination found no serious internal injuries and she was not admitted to the hospital. 

In Khoan’s rants during the attack, sources said, he charged that the land, now legally owned by Nguyen Thi Lan, had once belonged to his ancestors, implying that the ancestors would be angry that the current residents no longer worshipped them. Blurry cell-phone photos of the attack show a sullen Khoan in a tug-of-war with a woman trying to hang on to the wooden cross he had torn off the wall of the large room the Christians used for worship.  

The invading gang destroyed furniture and seriously damaged motorbikes, a small vegetable garden and fruit trees before leaving (see www.compassdirect.org, “House Church Leaders Attacked near Hanoi, Vietnam,” Nov. 16), sources said.

The injured Christians wrote a petition to police indicating the articles of the criminal code that had been violated, but officers have done nothing about Khoan’s death threats nor helped to redress the damage done to the Christians and their property. 

While not opposing the attempt at securing legal redress, the affected Christians’ top leader, Nguyen Cong Thanh, encouraged the injured Christians to show forbearance.

“I pray that you will patiently endure your suffering for Jesus’ sake without bitterness,” he told them. “Know that the blood you spilled is now joined with Christ’s blood in suffering.”

He said officials have failed to prosecute the perpetrators.

“They remain beyond the reach of the law and dare the authorities and the Christians, saying, ‘If we are not imprisoned, we will surely murder Ms. Lan if she ever returns.’”  

A long-time Vietnam religious liberty advocate said there is a growing pattern of strong social persecution in Vietnam where new Christian groups flourish.

“It is also the pattern that local police and government officials are loathe to prosecute those who harm Christians or to extend protection to threatened Christian believers,” he said. “In this incident, Christians recognized some police and local officials dressed in civilian clothes among those who took part in the original attack on the house church on Nov. 13.” 

www.compassdirect.org

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Copyright 2011 Compass Direct News

Jailed Sichuan Activist Ding Mao Case Sent Back to Prosecutors from Police for Third Time, Wife and Son Denied Birthday Visit

Ding Mao's family

MIAYANG, Sichuan, Nov. 8, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Government prosecutors handling the case of Sichuan activist Ding Mao, arrested for forwarding Twitter messages about the Arab Jasmine Revolution and charged with subversion, had demanded police for further investigations because of insufficient evidence and the case now has been sent back to prosecutors for the third time, ChinaAid has confirmed.

Meanwhile, his wife's request to visit him on the eve of his birthday, which is Nov. 9, was denied. None of his family members, including the couple's six-year-old son, has seen Ding Mao since local police seized him from his home on Feb. 19. He has been held in the Mianyang Detention Center. In March 28, he was formally arrested on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power.

Ding's wife, Feng Xia, a House Church Christian in Blessings of Autumn Rain House Church in Chengdu city, was notified on Oct. 24 that the case had been sent back to Mianyang Prosecutors from the Public Security Bureau (police) again as she was in the United States trying to draw attention to her husband's case in an effort to win his release. During her three-week visit, she met with high-level U.S. government officials and congressional leaders as well as leaders from non-government organizations and the legal community.

The case had already been sent back to police three times because of insufficient evidence for prosecutors to build a case and indict Ding. According to China's criminal procedure law, a case can only be sent back to police three times before the prosecutors have to decide to issue a formal indictment or dismiss the case.

When Feng flew back home on Sunday (Oct.6) from the United States, she was met at the airport in the provincial capital of Chengdu by a U.S. consulate official who was there to ensure that she was not harassed by Chinese government authorities in retaliation for her U.S. trip, and had a tea together.

The U.S. Consulate on Monday invited her for a formal one-hour meeting with three consular officials, during which she provided them details about her husband's case and his health. Ding, who weighs just over 100 pounds and is physically weak, had had an excruciating toothache in April that made it impossible for him to sleep, and in August had back pain as well.

Yesterday Feng also filed a formal application with government prosecutors for a birthday visit with her husband, or a phone call or permission to send a birthday cake to him. All were denied.

Police in Mianyang have barred Ding from meeting with a lawyer hired for him by his family because, according to police, the case "involved state secrets."

At the time of his arrest, Ding was general manager of an investment company in Mianyang. He is also a founder of the Social Democratic Party. During the 1989 Tiananmen Square student democracy movement, Ding was a student of philosophy at Lanzhou University in Gansu province and became a student leader in the protests.

He has already spent about 9 years in jail during two previous imprisonments, first in 1989 and again in 1992 when he was arrested for organizing the Social Democratic Party.

Other cyber-dissidents and advocates of civil society were arrested at the same time as Ding. They include Chen Wei and Ran Yunfei, who were prosecuted on the same charge as Ding. Ran was released in August but put under six-month's of house arrest during which he is forbidden to express himself publicly.

They are among dozens of dissidents, activists and lawyers who have been illegally detained or who have disappeared into government custody since February.

Pastor Taken from Home, Likely to Be Killed

Iraq (MNN) ― An Iraqi pastor was recently kidnapped and is expected to face death at the hands of his attackers.

Voice of the Martyrs, Canadareports that the house church leader's daughter recently witnessed her father's capture when a group of militants broke into their home.

Pastor Jamal reportedly works among the Shabak people--a people who have Jewish roots and speak Arabic and Kurdish. Several weeks ago, militants attacked the home of one of Jamal's converts with machine gun fire.

It is suspected that the militants targeted Jamal because he has led many Muslims to Christ. It's feared that the pastor will not be released, but instead will likely be killed by his captors.

Over the past several months, hundreds of thousands of believers have fled Iraq out of fear of just such an incident. (Read more about that here.) Pastor Jamal has bravely remained where he is but is paying the consequences for his faith in this hostile environment.

Pray that Jamal's capture would not be incentive for Christians to flee the region. Pray that believers would remain bold in their faith despite this frightening setback.

Pray for Jamal's safety and for peace for his family. Follow up with the pastor's plight on the Voice of the Martyrs Web site.

To learn more about the persecuted Christ-followers of Iraq, click here.