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ULANHOT, Inner Mongolia, Dec. 1, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Nine Christians providing medical services in rural areas of Inner Mongolia were detained by local police who also confiscated medical equipment and sentenced two of the Christians to labor camp.

Photo: Decision Notification of sentencing Ms. Ren Zhimin to two years in a re-education-through-labor camp (Click to enlarge)

On July 26, six Christians set out from the city of Tongliao in Inner Mongolia for rural parts of the autonomous region, stopping in places such as Jarud Banner, Tuquan County in Hinggan League,  and the village of Shumugou, in Alide Sumu (township), in the Horqin Right Front Banner, where they held free medical clinics and evangelized among those who came for medical attention.

Five days later, on Aug. 1, they were in the hamlet of Zhongxinbu, in Shumugou village, Horqin Right Front Banner, in the city of Ulanhot, where they were providing medical services to the local people.  Around 4 p.m., a local resident warned them that the police might be coming and advised them to leave quickly, which they did.  However, they were stopped on the road by Domestic Security Protection agents of the Public Security Bureau, who detained them at the Horqin Right Front Banner police station and confiscated their van, medical equipment including an EKG machine and a laptop.

At 5 p.m. on Aug. 3, the Horqin Right Front Banner's Domestic Security Protection agents notified the families of the detainees and said they were being held for engaging in illegal evangelism.  However, the Domestic Security Protection agents never provided the families with the legally required written notifications of their detention.  It was not until Aug. 22, when the wife of Chen Hong, one of the detainees, went to the Domestic Security Protection Squad that she was able to get hold of the formal detention notice, but the families of the other detainees still have not received the formal  written notifications.  The deputy squad head asked Chen's wife questions related to the religious beliefs of the detainees.  The reason given for their detention was that they were suspected of using cult activities to interfere with law enforcement.

The six detainees were:

• Chen Hong (male) (of Tongliao city, Inner Mongolia)
   
• Sun Yuefen (female) (of Ulanhot, Inner Mongolia)
   
• Yinhua (Mongolian) (of Tongliao city, Inner Mongolia)
   
• Ren Zhimin (of Heilongjiang province)
   
• Liu Di (from Nen River County, Heilongjiang province; enrolled in Harbin Medical College)
   
• Pan Wenwen (from Changbai county, Baishan city, Jilin province Baishan Mayor White County; enrolled in Changchun School of Medicine)

On Sept. 1, the Re-education Through Labor Management Committee of Hinggan League handed down its decision notification sentencing Ms. Sun and Ms. Ren to two years in a re-education-through-labor camp.

Following that, authorities detained several others who were involved in this evangelistic effort.

On Sept. 22, the Xuetian police station in Tuquan County in Hinggan League took Dai Suqin into custody and detained her for 10 days.

On Oct. 8, the police station in the town of Baoshi, Huquan county, Hinngan League, took Wang Xiao into custody and held him for 10 days.

On Oct. 11, the same police station took Zhai Fuling into custody and detained her for 10 days.

Zhang Kai, a well-known Christian lawyer from Beijing, and several other local lawyers are jointly handling the case, and the six victims, including Ms. Sun, have submitted a request for an administrative review of their case.

ChinaAid is closely monitoring the case and calls on the new Chinese leadership to respect the legal right to religious freedom and to totally abandon the ultra-leftist road of the Hu-Wen regime in openly trampling on human rights and religious freedom.  ChinaAid urges the local government to immediately release Ms. Sun.

See our earlier report on this case: www.chinaaid.org/2012/09/seven-christians-criminally-detained-in.html