China Appellate Body Releases Four House Church Leaders

In China, the Hubei Provincial Re-Education Through Labor Administration Committee issued a decision (full text) earlier this month releasing four Christian house church leaders from a labor camp to which they had been sentenced. The Administration Committee's ruling reversed a decision made last year by the Re-Education Through Labor Administration Committee of Enshi Autonomous Region. Christian News Wire yesterday reported on the January 8 reversal which found that the original sentences were based on insufficient evidence. Of the nine house church leaders arrested in July 2007 on charges of "engaging in organizing and making use of an evil cult organization to undermine the enforcement of State laws", three women remain in labor camps.