CHINA — Four female leaders of the South China Church were declared innocent by the Hubei Provincial Court on Oct. 11. However, only hours after their release they were re-arrested by the Public Security Bureau and sent off to three years re-education through labor.
The four women had reportedly been sexually molested and repeatedly tortured until they signed documents saying that their pastor, Gong Shengliang, had raped them. They were arrested last year along with Gong and other church leaders and sentenced to death for cult activities.
An international outcry prompted the Hubei Court to hold a re-trial on the eve of President Jiang Zemin’s visit to the United States. Magistrates reduced the death sentences to life imprisonment for Gong and the other men, and declared the four women innocent. Evidently the local Jingmen police re-arrested the four women in order to prevent them from suing the officers for torture and wrongful arrest.
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