GUIYANG, Guizhou (China Aid) — An imprisoned house church pastor filed a lawsuit against local government departments in China’s southern Guizhou province on Oct. 10, claiming his religious freedom had been violated and that a fine was wrongly imposed on him, ChinaAid learned recently.
Li Guozhi, who is known by his alias, Yang Hua, pastored Huoshi Church, the largest house church in Guiyang, Guizhou, until he was taken into police custody for defending a church hard drive and sentenced to two-and-a-half years for “divulging state secrets.” Additionally, the government fined him and another of the church’s pastors, Su Tianfu, 7 million yuan ($1,020,200 USD), an amount the officials claimed the church had received as “illegal income.”
However, Su and Yang claim that church members donated their money voluntarily to the church and argued that it was the church’s income, not their own, so there is no grounds for administrative action.
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