Pastor Yang Hua of Living Stone Church in Guizhou Province, was released from prison in the early hours of 19 June after completing a two and a half year sentence.
According to friends and supporters, he is in urgent need of medical care and is suffering from several unspecified health problems.
Yang was placed under criminal detention in December 2015 on the charge of ‘illegally possessing state secrets’. On 6 January 2017, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Another leader at the church, Pastor Su Tianfu, was sentenced to one year in prison suspended for two years, with a further six months’ residential surveillance, following his trial on 26 April 2018.
