Leaders of Banned House Church Convicted and Sentenced for Murder and Fraud

The Shuangyashan Municipal Intermediate People’s Court in Heilongjiang province convicted 17 members of the Three Grades of Servants house church on charges of murder and fraud, and defense lawyers said that several confessions were coerced under torture and that the defendants would appeal, according to a July 6 report of the China Aid Association (CAA), a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom in China. The government accused the house church members of murdering 20 members of the Eastern Lightning religious group and of unspecified counts of fraud. The court sentenced three of the leaders to death, three others to death sentences with a two-year reprieve (which usually results in commutation to life in prison), and the remainder to prison terms ranging from 3 to 15 years. Xu Shuangfu, the founder of Three Grades of Servants church, was among those sentenced to death, according to an article in the Guardian of London. Defense lawyers say that they plan to appeal the judgment, claiming that at least two of the defendants were coerced under torture, and that the evidence presented against the accused was insufficient to convict them, according to CAA reports of July 6 and March 3. (A March 17 CAA press release reproduces the defense statement.)

In 1999, the Chinese government banned the Three Grades of Servants house church as a "cult" (xiejiao), according to a July 7 Reuters report (via ABC News). 1999 was the same year that the Falun Gong spiritual movement was banned as a "cult."

An urgent appeal on behalf of the leaders of Three Grades of Servants by Chinese house church leaders was posted on the CAA Web site, and a November 2004 New York Times article provides additional information on the Three Grades of Servants house church.