Release International

Fears are growing that religious leader Xu Shuangfu, awaiting a verdict in a murder trial, will be sentenced to death.

Xu, leader of the Three Grades of Servants religious group, is on trial with at least 15 other members of his church, accused of murdering 20 members of a sect and defrauding their own church of millions of Yuan. The trial was held in Shuangyashan Intermediate Court between February 28 and March 3 in Heilongjiang province -- but no verdict was returned at the time. It is thought that verdict must now be imminent.
China Aid reports that government sources have said that Xu and at least three other defendants will be given the death sentence.

7x7 reported on March14 that the defendants reported suffering brutal torture and abuse to extract confessions from them. Xu revoked his 'confession' as soon as the court had finished reading interrogation records provided by the prosecution.

Xu's Three Grades of Servants group, which boasts at least half-a-million members in China, is considered doctrinally controversial among mainstream house churches -- but most would defend its right to religious freedom.

Xu was kidnapped and detained in April 2004, and it was some time later that his arrest was made official. The decision to first kidnap Xu rather than arrest him in the conventional way has caused his supporters to question whether the authorities had any evidence of his alleged crimes at that point.

• Pray for Xu Shuangfu, his family and fellow defendants as they endure an agonising wait before the verdict is returned. Pray that God would strengthen them and comfort them.
• Pray that the Chinese authorities would be challenged about the fairness of a trial where confessions have apparently been extracted under torture. Pray that the international community would hold these authorities to account.

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