China house church leader beaten by authorities over church demolition lawsuit
The leader of a house church in Wenzhou, Zheijiang was confronted by a group of men and beaten by a village resident earlier this month because of his opposition to church demolition.
In a written testimony, Xialing Christian Church pastor He Jiyi said men led by Shuangyu Village Party Secretary Zheng Hele and Xu Jianyun, a resident of the village, went to the church at around 11 a.m. on May 8 after the worship service.
They reportedly formed a circle around him and another church leader, Lin Nansong. The men demanded that He withdraw the lawsuit he filed against a church demolition notice issued by the Shuangyu office. They showed He a document stating that the church is withdrawing the lawsuit and pressured him to sign it.
However, He persisted that he will not withdraw the lawsuit and refused to sign the paper. Xu then began to beat him, slapping his face and shouting profanities at him while people, including his wife, watched. According to He, Xu slapped him so hard that he almost fainted.
Someone stopped Xu from beating him further, but he continued to shout threats at He. When the men left the church, He's wife reported the incident at the Huanglong police station.
The incident was partly recorded by the church's CCTV camera. When He went to the police station, he gave the authorities a copy of the surveillance video along with his statement. However, he was disappointed to see that the police changed some details in his statement.
"There were too many discrepancies between the 'facts' on the statement the policeman recorded and my actual account, and I refused to sign the statement," he said.
He provided a written testimony as a supplement to the police report. He asked the authorities to acknowledge the criminal act done against him by Hele and Xu and to give them the necessary punishment afforded by the law.
"I ask that penalties from the public security bureau be imposed upon them and request that they give me a public apology to ensure that similar incidents will not occur in the future," He wrote.
