CHINA

October 14, 2002

Four women who were turned loose by the Jingmen Intermediate Court last week have been re-arrested by officers of China’s Public Security Bureau (PSB), and sent away for three years of “re-education through labor.”

The four women had been released only hours earlier after a re-trial ordered by the Hubei Province Supreme Court. They had planned to file a lawsuit against guards and officials who had tortured them repeatedly during their incarceration.

Feng Ping Xiang, 32, Xicun Meng, 27, YingPing Li, 28, and Xian Zhi Liu, 31, were arrested only hours after the court had freed them. They had been facing prison sentences from two years to 12 years before the retrial.

“The police in Jingmen clearly acted to prevent these women from suing them,” said Todd Nettleton, spokesman for The Voice of the Martyrs. “How could they possibly have committed a new crime in the few hours they were free?”

 The four women were sexually molested and repeatedly tortured--including having electric shocks to their breasts and genitals--until they signed documents saying that Pastor Gong Shengliang had raped them. Gong, the founder of the South China Church, was convicted on rape charges last week and sentenced to life in prison.

“Obviously, the Chinese government thought Christians around the world would forget about these women once they were released from prison,” said Nettleton. “We have not forgotten, and we urge Americans to write or call the Chinese embassy to request the release of these Christian women. After all they have already suffered, they should not spend another day in a labor camp.”

 Police in China can send a prisoner away for up to three years without a formal trial or formal charges.

China’s President, Jiang Zemin, will be meeting with President Bush in Texas later this month.

“We hope that President Bush will raise this case with President Jiang, and urge the release of all South China Church Christians,” said Nettleton.