{"id":29921,"date":"2025-02-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/hui-christian-pastor-charged-and-tried-for-organising-illegal-gatherings-6430\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:13:13","slug":"hui-christian-pastor-charged-and-tried-for-organising-illegal-gatherings-6430","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/press\/hui-christian-pastor-charged-and-tried-for-organising-illegal-gatherings-6430\/","title":{"rendered":"Hui Christian pastor charged and tried for &#8216;organising illegal gatherings&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1b2414ea67e99b9a287fc19d1dc7cb49.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>A Hui Christian pastor from China\u2019s Yunnan Province was charged and tried on 10 February for \u2018organising illegal gatherings\u2019 in relation to a gathering of no more than ten Christians in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ma Yan, a 32-year-old preacher from Zhenxiong, Yunnan Province, was detained along with three other Christians during a raid on a gathering at a guesthouse in Jinfeng District, Yinchuan, by police officers from the Jinfeng District Public Security Bureau, on 9 August 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next day, on 10 August, the Bureau issued an administrative detention order against the four detained individuals for \u2018disrupting public order\u2019 and detained them at the Yinchuan Detention Center. Two men were detained for seven days while Ma and another were held for 10 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 20 August Ma was criminally detained by the same bureau on the charge of \u2018organising illegal gatherings\u2019. He was formally arrested on the same charge on 26 September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CSW sources report Ma pleaded guilty during the trial on 10 February because the charge of \u2018organising illegal gatherings\u2019 carries a lighter sentence compared to other charges and does not attract moral stigmatisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ma&#8217;s trial concluded without an immediate verdict, but if the court follows the prosecutor&#8217;s sentencing recommendation, Ma will be sentenced to nine months in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CSW\u2019s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said:<b><i> \u2018The arrest and prosecution of Pastor Ma Yan is yet another instance of the Chinese Communist Party targeting ethnic and religious minorities and violating Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees the right to freedom of religion or belief. CSW calls on the authorities to release Ma immediately, and to declare him not guilty.\u2019<\/i><\/b><b><i><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Notes to Editors:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n<li>\u2018Criminal detention\u2019 means that any time served in detention will count towards any jail term if an individual is convicted.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Individuals can be held for up to 13 and a half months before going to trial if they are formally arrested.<\/li>\n\n<\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Hui Christian pastor from Chinas Yunnan Province was charged and tried on 10 February for organising illegal gatherings in relation to a gathering of no more than ten Christians.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":44057,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[131,128],"class_list":["post-29921","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-china","regions-east-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40506,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29921\/revisions\/40506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29921"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}