A man from Hebei was given a prison sentence for preaching in other provinces like Jilin and Liaoning. However, his trial was conducted in secret, without informing his family.
Bitter Winter recently spoke to Ms. Lin Xu (pseudonym) about her husband, Guo Yu (pseudonym), who had been missing for a while. She reveals she received a phone call out of the blue in March last year. On the other side of the line was an official from her local Public Security Bureau, who told her to visit the prison but gave no additional information.
When she arrived at the prison, she found out that Mr. Guo had been in police custody for the past two years. According to the file presented to her by the prison authorities, he had been detained in April 2015 for preaching in Jilin. Ms. Lin also found out that her husband had been sentenced to six and a half years in prison for being the organizer of a xie jiao spanning three provinces”.
Xie jiao translates to heterodox teachings in Chinese and is punishable under Article 300 of China’s Criminal Code. Anyone found associating with such an organization could be sentenced between three to seven or more years in prison.
Mr. Guo’s trial was conducted in secret, and none of his family members was ever informed to attend any case hearing. He was held guilty of preaching the gospel in provinces other than his home, Hebei, such as Liaoning and Jilin. He had already served two years in detention when he was handed a six and half year prison sentence. He will now remain in prison until 2021.
Reported by Shen Xiang
