CHINA – House-church leader Cai Zhuohua released
19/09/07
Pastor, relatives tortured during interrogation
Cai Zhuohua was ordered to report to the PSB once a month and to stop practising his faith outside the government-sanctioned church
Rev Bob Fu of China Aid Association (CAA) told reporters that on 13 September, three days after Pastor Cai's release on 10 September, officials of China's Public Security Bureau (PSB) took the well-known Beijing house-church pastor to their offices and tried to intimidate him with threats.
"They warned him to be careful – not to be interviewed by the media, to obey the law and not to attend religious activities," Rev Fu said.
Officials from the National Security Bureau – China's equivalent of America's Central Intelligence Agency – on two occasions gave Pastor Cai similar warnings before he was released, Rev Fu said.
As an ex-convict whom the government is especially interested to control, Rev Fu said, Pastor Cai must report to the PSB once a month.
Pastor Cai is now at home in Beijing with his wife and mother, who leads a church that meets in their house.
Deprived of his Bible whilst in prison, Pastor Cai was forced to make soccer balls for the 2008 Beijing Olympics for 10 to 12 hours a day, according to the CAA. Pastor Cai's mother, Rev Fu said, reported that the pastor was well and in good spirits.
Pastor Cai was sentenced to three years in prison on 8 November 2005 for "illegal business practices" and fined 150,000 yuan (then about £9,275).
His wife, Xiao Yunfei, was sentenced to two years and fined 120,000 yuan, and her brother Xiao Gaowen was given an 18-month sentence and a fine of 100,000 yuan. Both were released after serving out their sentences.
Having been arrested by state security officers on 11 September 2004 at a bus stop, Pastor Cai had been incarcerated for three years by last 10 September even though he was not convicted until November 2005.
At the time of his arrest, authorities found more than 237,000 pieces of printed Christian literature, including Bibles, in a storage room he managed.
By law, only the government-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) church is allowed to print and distribute Bibles in China.
The US State Department's 2007 International Religious Freedom Report, released last week, noted that many unregistered evangelical Protestant groups in China refuse to register with the TSPM due to theological differences, fear of adverse consequences if they reveal names and addresses of church leaders or members, or fear that it will control sermon content.
"Many evangelical house-church groups also disagreed with the TSPM's admonitions against proselytising, which they consider a central teaching of Christianity," the report states.
Another house-church leader, Zhou Heng in Xinjiang region, was arrested in August on the same charge as Pastor Cai, as he was caught receiving three tons of Bibles from another city, according to the CAA.
Crackdown on Christian literature
Recently Chinese authorities have been trying house-church leaders under Article 225 of China's Criminal Law against "illegal acts in business operation," according to Rev Fu of the Texas-based CAA.
In 1998, the Supreme People's Court issued a ruling that allows courts to use Article 225 to imprison anyone who "publishes, prints, copies or distributes illegal publications".
Pastor Cai's legal representatives had argued that the books were printed for free distribution throughout house-church networks and should not be considered a profit-making venture as the government charged.
The judge rejected these arguments. Shortly after his conviction, a court clerk visited Pastor Cai at the Qinghe detention centre and warned him that his sentence would be increased if he "annoyed" the judges with an appeal.
Facing heavy pressure, Pastor Cai and his family agreed to drop the appeal.
After their arrest in September 2004, sources said, Pastor Cai and his relatives were tortured during interrogation.
CAA reported that the arrest of Zhou Heng on 3 August was not formally approved by Shayibake District People's Procuratorate of Urumqi city until 31 August when notice was sent to his wife, Chen Jihong, by the Urumqi Municipal Public Security Bureau.
CAA said Mr Zhou is being held at Xishan Detention Centre. He was arrested after he went to a bus station to pick up three tons of donated Bibles intended for local believers free of charge. If convicted of the charges, he faces a 15-year prison sentence.
CAA investigators who spoke with a released inmate who shared a cell with Mr Zhou reported that prison guards and other inmates severely beat Mr Zhou.
Also a well-known house-church leader, Mr Zhou is manager of a registered bookshop called Yayi Christian Book Room, which sells Christian literature published legally and officially inside China.
The bookshop has been forced to close following his arrest.
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