Human Rights Watchdog Appeals for Chinese Pastor’s Trial over Bibles

A Chinese pastor from a renowned Beijing House church will face trial in a Beijing court on Thursday 7th July. He has been detained for the past ten months since he was arrested last September, charged with "illegal business practices" as he printed more than 200,000 Bibles. Some human rights watchdogs across the world have appealed for the pastor.

The 32-year-old pastor Cai Zhuohua is leading six underground churches in Beijing. He oversees a storage room containing 200,000 copies of Christian literature, including some Bibles, according to the Voice of Martys (VOM).

In China, where religious freedom is very much restricted, Christians are only allowed to worship in state-approved churches. In addition, only one firm, which is affiliated with the officially sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement, is permitted by the state to print Bibles and other Christian literature, and the numbers of these items are severely limited.

China Aid Association (CAA), a US-based non-profit Christian organisation with a mission to advocate religious freedom in China, obtained a copy of the prosecution papers. It was written that Pastor Cai, his wife Ms. Xiao Yunfei and Xiao's brother will be prosecuted on the grounds of "illegal business management".

VOM asserted that the Chinese government is prosecuting Cai under business fraud laws so it can continue to claim there is religious freedom in China.

Pastor Cai's lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, said to the French news agency AFP that he was not optimistic about the verdict for the three detainees.

"It is impossible for them to be found innocent, but I have confidence to strive for lighter sentences," Gao said.

Gao is going to defend Pastor Cai that he was not selling the literature and Bibles but using them for only internal house-church purposes.

"The court should not be used to oppress religion and religious freedoms, but the authorities are always using economics as a pretext to deal with religious and political issues," he added.

Pastor Cai’s persecution has drawn the attention of many human rights groups and Chinese who are worried about religious freedom. Nine prominent lawyers and legal scholars volunteered to defend Pastor Cai, according to CAA. Among them, professor Fan Yafeng is currently an associate researcher at the Institute of Studies on Law in China's Academy of Social Sciences which is the top government think tank.

The pastor was arrested 11th Sep 2004. As Cai was waiting at a bus stop, three men approached him and pushed him into a white van. Members of his family fled after his arrest, but Cai's wife, her brother and his wife were all arrested on the 27th of the same month.

VOM reports Beijing has labelled the pastor's prosecution as the "most serious case on overseas religious infiltration since the founding of the People's Republic of China."

CAA appeals to the international community to intervene immediately on behalf of Pastor Cai and his family. CAA urges conscience journalists in China to observe the trial.

"This will be a true litmus test for the Beijing government's religious freedom claims," said Bob Fu, President of CAA and a former co-worker of Pastor Cai, "given the fact that 2008 Olympics will be held in Beijing, the international community has an obligation to demand the Beijing government show the true spirit of the rule of law and respect of religious freedom for ordinary citizens like Pastor Cai."