A Christian man who was working to help other Christians open a bookstore in Shanxi Province, China is being released from a Chinese prison.
Wenxi Li, a native of Beijing, has been working with Chrisitans in Shanxi when he was asked to come to a police station on December 19, 2012 to pick up books that had been seized by authorities. When he arrived, he was immediately arrested and thrown in jail.
They denied him bail and he was sentenced to two years in prison on June 17, 2013.
Family members say that they are optimistic the Chinese government will follow through on their word to release Wenxi. He has been transferred to a prison where he’s receiving better medical treatment and food and has been able to make short phone calls to his family.
His wife, Cal Hong Li, told Voice of the Martyrs that her husband has been able to share Christ with many of his fellow prisoners during his time behind bars. She said that she is thankful God found him worthy to suffer for His sake.
Cal Hong said she hopes her husband will take some time to rest and spend time with her before going back into the field to serve Christ.
The captain of a South Korean ferry which capsized and killed more than 300 people, mostly students, will be spending at least the next three decades behind bars.
Captain Lee Joon-seok was convicted of gross negligence but was surprisingly acquitted of homicide connected to the deaths of the passengers.
The captain had fled the ship when it began sinking rather than staying behind to try and rescue the teenagers and passengers trapped below the water line.
Family members of the students who drowned were furious with the verdict and the sentencing, saying that the sentence was too lenient and that it was unconscionable that the captain was not found guilty of homicide in abandoning the passengers.
The ship’s engineer was convicted of homicide only on the part of two ship’s employees that he left behind when the fled the ship. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Two Christian pastors and a deacon will be spending the next six years in some of Iran’s most desolate prisons because of their Christian faith.
Pastors Benham Irani and Matthias Haghnejad along with deacon Silas Rabbani will be taken to prisons as far away from family and friends as the Iranian government can take them after convictions on trumped-up charges to justify the government’s campaign of hate against Christians.
“We are deeply concerned by the six-year sentences given to pastors [Benham] Irani and [Matthias] Haghnejad and deacon Silas Rabbani, and the fact that they will serve these sentences so far from their families and home towns,” said Christian Solidarity Worldwide Chief Operating Officer Andy Dipper.
“We are particularly appalled by the extra six years given to pastor Irani, who has already endured ill-treatment whilst in prison and now faces nearly a decade in prison on trumped-up charges. We urge the Iranian government to release without delay every person who is imprisoned for their faith. Their incarceration contravenes international covenants guaranteeing freedom of religion or belief, to which Iran is party.”
The government claims the Christian men were taking “action against the state” and “action against the order” along with Pastor Irani being accused of “spreading corruption on Earth.” He could have received the death penalty on the last charge.