China executes 15 members of underground church
Pastor Dale Morgan
Wednesday November 29, 11:02 PM
*China executes 15 members of underground church*
China has executed up to 15 members of an underground Protestant church
sect for the alleged murders of people in another group, a religious
rights body and a lawyer said.
The Texas-based China Aid Association said in a statement three leaders
of the Three Grade Servant church had been put to death in northeast
China's Heilongjiang province over the past week.
It said another 12 members of the congregation had also been previously
executed, bringing the total number to 15.
The China Aid Association said the case involved accusations that the
Three Grade Servant Church was involved in the murder of members of
another Christian cult, the Eastern Lightning.
A lawyer for the church leaders, Li Heping, confirmed court authorities
told him Tuesday that Xu Shuangfu, Li Maoxing and Wang Jun had been
executed.
"I felt very shocked, because lawyers and family members were not
informed about the verdict before they were executed," Li told AFP on
Wednesday.
Li said Xu was accused of homicide, fraud, illegal gathering and the
illegal detention of others.
The lawyer said he knew of at least 12 church members who had been
executed, some of them put to death as far back as 2004.
These people were among a total of 22 people who received death
sentences in connection with the case, which involved 63 church members
in all, he said.
The Christian group's activities have been secretive but the growth of
its size has been extremely fast, with some estimating there were
between 500,000 and one million adherents, Li said.
"But I can't say any more because this case is very sensitive," he said.
According to an earlier statement from China Aid quoting a court
document, Xu and other church leaders were accused of having murdered 20
leaders of the Eastern Lighting cult between 2002 and 2004.
Xu and others were also accused of defrauding others of 32 million yuan
(4.05 million dollars), according to the rights body.
But the US-based group said their confessions were extorted through
severe torture and the funds they were accused of defrauding were
donations from Christians.
According to Chinese law, a court cannot convict someone based on
testimonies alone, especially when the confession was extracted through
torture, Li said.
"I believe my client was tortured to confess," he said.
Chan Kim-kwong, of the Hong Kong Christian Council, said both Eastern
Lightning and the Three Grade Servant church were considered cults which
did not follow Christian teaching by orthodox churches, both inside and
outside China.
There were reports the two sects had been feuding over the past few
years and that both had kidnapped, tortured and injured adherents from
the rival camp, he said.
"They are well known for their brutal ways ... so many mainstream
Christian groups are terrified of them," he said.
"Whether this is a religious freedom issue and whether the killings were
motivated by religion, that's the debatable issue."
The Heilongjiang People's High Court declined to comment Wednesday.