Lawyers Appeal Case of Nine Detained Chinese Christians

ICC Note: Nine Christians in central China remain behind bars this week as their lawyers appeal for an investigation from a higher level court. The nine Christians, including Pastor Zhang Shaojie, were arrested back in November along with more than a dozen other church members belonging to the Nanle County Christian Church. The mass arrest was unusual because the church belongs to the government controlled “Three-Self” church organization. Most of China’s Christians choose to worship in unregistered house churches and can be arrested for attending these “illegal” gatherings.  
2/17/2014 China (ChinaAid) – ChinaAid has obtained an official complaint and investigation request submitted to the Puyang Municipal People’s Procuratorate in central Henan province by the lawyers representing the nine Nanle County Christians who remain in detention.
The document, which was sent on Dec. 12, named Huo Peijing, director of the Nanle County Public Security Bureau, and Li Zhengje, director of the Nanle County Detention Center, where four of the Christian have been detained since mid-November, as the accused.
The demands listed in the complaint are that the Puyang Municipal People’s Procuratorate investigate the criminal liability of Huo and Li and to supervise the Nanle County Public Security Bureau and the Nanle County Detention Center’s activity according to the law.
The document noted that many of the detainees’ families haven’t received detention or arrest notices from authorities.
In addition, the complaint stated that authorities searched two of Pastor Zhang Shaojie’s residences without search warrants on three occasions.
The document, which can be read in full below, went on to list several more facts that the lawyers said demonstrated the need for investigation.
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