Zhejiang: Six underground Protestants detained without charge

They were arrested for resisting police who sought to destroy their church. In reality, the local government wants to prosecute them for their evangelization activities among migrants.

Hangzhou (AsiaNews) – Six Protestant Christians from Xiaoshan district (Zhejiang) remain in prison although the authorities do not have evidence to accuse them of resisting law enforcement. The Christians were arrested on charges of clashing with police that came to demolish their church some months ago.

On 29 July, thousands of anti-riot and military police and government workers arrived at the church of Cheluwan (Xiaoshan district, Hanzhou, Zhejiang) at 1:30 p.m. Resorting to force, they started to evict Protestants who had gathered to stop the destruction the building, which had allegedly been built without permission. Shortly afterwards, they destroyed the church completely. Eyewitnesses reported that the police used electric shock batons and anti-riot shields to disperse the Christians. Several hundred Christians were beaten and some were arrested.

The six members of the church community who are still in prison are: Shen Chengyi (76 years); Ni Weimin (45), Wang Weiliang, Guo Lijun, and Mrs Shen Zhuke (52). According to the China Aid Association (CAA), the case was returned to the local Public Security Bureau to gather more evidence. The CAA said the very men who were arrested had begged the military police to wait before entering the church grounds and at the same time they asked Christians to leave the place immediately to avoid confrontations.

So it was thanks to the detained men that an even bigger clash was avoided. This is why the charge of resisting law enforcement does not stick and why the police need more proof.

The CAA said the true reason for the detention of the six people is that in the past they had been accused of holding prayer meetings for hundreds of migrants without the permission of the Religious Affairs Department.

• china
• religious
• freedom
• christians
• protestants
• underground
• zhejiang
• xiaoshan