China Jails Evangelist; Preacher Plans Appeal (Worthy News Mission Watch)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BEIJING (Worthy News) – A Chinese evangelist plans to appeal the lengthy prison term he received on charges linked to his Christian activities, several sources confirmed to Worthy News on Thursday.
Chen Wensheng was sentenced to a year and seven months in prison last month by a court in Hengyang City, China’s Hunan Province.
Chinese authorities said he had been involved in “organizing and funding illegal gatherings,” but he and his supporters have denied these charges.
Last month’s court hearing was treated as “a high-security trial,” with the entire street blocked off and approximately 40 black-clad “special police” officers stationed nearby, Christians told Worthy News. As a result, the Christian man’s family and friends were reportedly unable to enter the court building to attend the trial.
Christians explained that Chen, known internationally as China’s “Gospel Warrior,” has been arrested more than 100 times for his work as a street evangelist.
He so far spent more than 130 days in prison, what authorities classify “as administrative detention,” rights activists confirmed to Worthy News.
Advocacy group Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Hyun Sook Foley says this latest sentence is his harshest one yet. “Last August, Evangelist Chen Wensheng attempted to take a flight from Shanghai to Jeju Island but was intercepted at Shanghai Airport and sent back to Hengyang and placed under administrative detention,” Foley added.
CRIMINAL CHARGES
“Normally, that means they would hold him for two weeks and then release him, as they had done every time in the past. But when he was due to have been released on September 18, they instead increased the charge to a criminal one: ‘organizing and financing illegal gatherings’ and kept him in prison,” added Foley.
Representative Foley said Chen’s trial was held on April 18 in the People’s Court of Shigu District in Hengyang City. “The morning the trial began, Evangelist Chen’s relatives, friends, and supporters followed him to the door of the courtroom but were turned away by authorities.”
Eyewitness reports say there were already police cars at the court door and nearly 800 people from various agencies providing security. “The entire street where the court is located was blocked off under the pretext of a security drill,” recalled Representative Foley.
In the trial, which reportedly lasted one hour, prosecutors presented two main arguments against Chen, according to Representative Foley.
“First, they noted that he had already been administratively detained nine times due to his street evangelism work, for a total of 130 days of detention. Second, they said he disrupted the social order and negatively impacted the lives of residents by organizing evangelism in vegetable markets, intersections, shops, and minority areas,” Foley explained.
Observers said that Evangelist Chen denied the criminal charges, telling the court that he does “not organize gatherings or finance “them but rather “simply evangelizes” on the street.
“He carries a wooden cross displaying the words ‘Glory to our Savior’ and ‘Repent and be saved by faith,’ and he hands out gospel tracts, even to the police who arrest him,” Foley added.
NO LAWYER
As Chen did not hire a lawyer that day, the court appointed a public defender for him.
Yet Foley said the evangelist mainly spoke to the court on his own. “He told the court that as a person of faith, he was willing to suffer for his faith and be sentenced severely, but as a citizen, he asked the court to conduct a fair trial.”
Despite his detention, eyewitnesses report that the evangelist “was very cheerful and peaceful” during the trial and was friendly to the court officials. “Years ago, he was a drug addict,” said Foley.
“When he heard the Gospel, he was delivered from his addiction and immediately began preaching on the streets. He’s been a street preacher for more than 15 years.”
Chen is a member of a small church, but “these criminal charges and this recent trial where the building and streets were blocked off testify to the breadth of his impact,” Foley stressed.
The trial is part of a broader reported crackdown on openly devoted Christians and independent churches in Communist-run China.
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