ICC Note: Four Chinese Christians were arrested and held for two weeks of administrative detention in January after visiting the home of a bedridden man and laying hands on him for healing. The man accepted Christ before authorities arrived and detained the Christians. The Christians involved have now hired a human rights attorney to file an administrative review of their case in the hopes of preventing future arrests for evangelistic activities.
3/9/2013 China (ChinaAid) – Eight Christians in Inner Mongolia have hired rights defense lawyers after four of them were held under administrative detention for up to 15 days because they had visited and evangelized a sick person.
On Jan. 10, police in Alxa took into custody the eight Christians as they were visiting Sitengbatu in Alateng-aobao township, Alxa Right Banner. Sitengbatu had long been bedridden because of illness and the Christians, to alleviate his pain, all prayed for him. Sitengbatu was glad to receive the prayers and was comforted, and he told the eight Christians that he wanted to accept Jesus and become a Christian.
About an hour into the visit, at about 10 a.m., five local policemen suddenly showed up at Sitengbatu’s house, harshly intimidating the eight visitors and ordering them to stop praying right away and to get out of the house. Without showing any law enforcement papers, they forced the eight Christians into a police vehicle and took them to Alateng-aobao township police station, where they were forced to stand in the hallway until 8 p.m. The next morning, the local police brought all eight people back to the police station again and started questioning them. Finally, four of them were given sentences of 10-15 days of administrative detention.
The eight have now hired a lawyer to defend their citizens’ rights to freedom of religion in accordance with the law, and an application for administrative review has been filed in the name of Nashengwuliji, one of the four who had been administratively detained.
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