Prominent Beijing House Church Leader Tortured for Confession
An imprisoned Beijing House Church leader was tortured for a confession with electric cattle prods by his interrogators, according to eyewitness account
An imprisoned Beijing House Church leader was tortured for a confession with electric cattle prods by his interrogators, according to eyewitness account received by a Texas-based persecution watchdog group.
The China Aid Association (CAA), which monitors religious freedom in China, learned from an eyewitness that prominent Beijing House church leader pastor Zhuohua Cai was tortured severely with electric cattle prods by his interrogators for his "confessions" that he "illegally managing a printing business and illegally profited 200,000RMB" (US $25,000). According to the eyewitness, pastor Cai was seen physically wounded and spiritually depressed.
“To torture an innocent pastor like Cai for false confessions is a direct violation of the international human rights law,” said Bob Fu, CAA's president. “We urge people of all faiths to take action to protest the deportations of these pastors and demand pastor Cai and his wife's immediate release."
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Cai, who ministered to six house churches in Beijing before his arrest, was detained by the National Security on Sept. 11, 2004 for printing "illegal religious literatures." After his arrest, authorities confiscated some 200,000 copies of the Bible and other Christian literature in a storage room managed by Cai.
Though, only one publisher belonging to the state-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement is allowed to publish and print a limited number of Bibles and other Christian literature in China each year, and the sale of these publications in public bookstores is forbidden, sources close to one of Cai’s churches said the confiscated materials were solely for internal house church-use and that Cai made no profit off them.
According to a statement made by the CAA in November of last year, Cai’s case is part of a broader national campaign against the underground church and so-called “illegal” religious publications that began last June. Sources say the China Government tries to control and regulate religious groups to prevent the rise of groups that could constitute sources of authority outside of the control of the Government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Recently, China implemented new regulations that the government says will protect freedom of faith. While the guidelines, which took effect yesterday, are meant to give a legal framework for China’s constitutional promise of freedom of religion, critics contend that the broad guidelines could instead be used to persecute religious groups deemed troublesome by authorities.
