SUBSCRIBE NOW

SIGHT

Be informed. Be challenged. Be inspired.

Chinese authorities accused of torturing detained pastor

The daughter of a Chinese pastor currently serving a 12 year sentence in prison in China has accused authorities of torturing her father.

Esther Zhang Huixin, who lives in the US, says her father Pastor Zhang Shaojie, of Nanle County Christian Church, Henan Province, is “barely alive” and suffering mentally and physically as a result of meagre food rations and sleep deprivation.

She has told persecuted church advocacy ChinaAid that her father has been “cruelly” tortured. “He’s unable to see the sun during the day,” the US based organisation reported her as saying. “He’s deprived of sleep for 24 hours at a time. The prison gives him only one steamed bun a day and intentionally starves him. According to people who have been released from that prison, my father is barely alive, suffering both mentally and physically.”

Pastor Zhang has been in prison since 2014 when he was jailed on charges of fraud and assemblng a crowd to disrupt public order. His daughter has said authorities are treating him harshly “in order to bend him” after telling him they would not file an appeal in his case unless he pleaded guilty.

Pastor Zhang’s church was an officially sanctioned branch of China’s government-run Protestant Churches, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. His arrest came after he led a group of Christians to Beijing to file a petition concerning a land dispute the church had with local authorities.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has called on Chinese authorities to stop the mistreatment of Pastor Zhang and review his sentence.

“Recent reports that he is on the verge of death after being tortured in prison would be an unacceptable abuse of human rights even if he were guilty, but the deliberate ill-treatment of an unjustly sentenced pastor is an utterly grievous injustice,” said Mervyn Thomas, CEO of the UK-based religious freedom advocacy.

“We call on the Chinese authorities to immediately stop the mistreatment of Pastor Zhang and to review his sentence with a view to securing his unconditional release. We further urge the Chinese government to ensure that the right to freedom of religion or belief is fully protected in China.”

 

Donate



sight plus logo

Sight+ is a new benefits program we’ve launched to reward people who have supported us with annual donations of $26 or more. To find out more about Sight+ and how you can support the work of Sight, head to our Sight+ page.

Musings

TAKE PART IN THE SIGHT READER SURVEY!

We’re interested to find out more about you, our readers, as we improve and expand our coverage and so we’re asking all of our readers to take this survey (it’ll only take a couple of minutes).

To take part in the survey, simply follow this link…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.