In Depth:  Christian Solidarity

Pastor Zhang Shaojie of Nanle Country Christian Church, Henan Province, is ‘barely alive’ after suffering various forms of torture in prison, according to reports from his daughter in June.

His daughter, Esther Zhang Huixin, who is based in the US, said that Pastor Zhang is suffering both mentally and physically as a result of meagre food rations and sleep deprivation: ‘They cruelly torture my father. He’s unable to see the sun during the day. He’s deprived of sleep for 24 hours at a time. The prison gives him only one steamed bun a day. According to people who have been released from that prison, my father is barely alive.’

On 25 February, Pastor Bao Guohua and his wife Xing Wenxiang were convicted of the criminal charges of ‘corruption’ and ‘gathering people to disturb social order’ and sentenced to 14 and 12 years in prison respectively.

Bao, Xing and their son Bao Chenxing were detained on 26 July 2015 and held for six months before being sentenced. In addition to their sentences, the court has ordered that assets totalling 600,000 yuan (approximately £65,000) in value be confiscated from each of them. In addition, Boa has been fined 100,000 yuan and Xing has been fined 90,000 yuan. The corruption charges against them pertain to the alleged embezzling of money from their congregation.

The family of the Revd Jesús Noel Carballeda, the 44-year-old pastor of an unregistered church in Havana, is calling for his release from Valle Grande prison in San Antonio de los Baños, Havana province, where he has been imprisoned for approximately a month without charge, it was reported in March.

The Revd Carballeda’s wife, Teresa Castillo Medina, said that the pastor was imprisoned for four months five years ago, after militant Communist neighbours filed legal complaints about the church services they held in their home in Marianao. Following his imprisonment, he was put on probation and made to check in with the authorities on a regular basis.

The Rev. Lleonart Barroso, a Baptist pastor, was arrested and detained by political police and state security agents in central Cuba on January 25.

He was returned to his home later that night and put under house arrest.

An Iranian Assemblies of God (AOG) pastor, his wife and two church workers have been returned to jail after their one-year sentences were upheld by a High Court on May 1.

Pastor Farhad Sabokrooh, his wife Shahnaz Jayzan and church workers Naser Zaman-Dezfuli and Davoud Alijani were initially arrested in December 2011, after authorities in the southern town of Ahwaz raided their church’s Christmas celebrations and detained everyone in the building, including children attending Sunday School.