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World News

Imprisoned Chinese Church Leader Paralyzed, Request for Medical Parole Rejected

Imprisoned Chinese Church Leader Paralyzed, Request for Medical Parole RejectedThe founder of a Christian China church serving a 19-year prison sentence, has suffered a stroke that has left him paralyzed and unable to speak, but prison officials have refused the family’s request to release Gong Shengliang on medical parole. 

ChinaAid received an urgent appeal letter Thursday evening from Gong’s family in which they detailed Gong’s condition and their efforts to secure his release on medical parole.

Gong was one of 17 South China Church leaders convicted and sentenced in December 2001 of “using a cult to undermine law enforcement.”  Gong and four others were given the death sentence.  That sentence was later reduced do to international pressure.

Gong, who is in his 60s, suffered a stroke at 8 p.m. on Dec. 2 that left him paralyzed on the left side, unable to speak and drooling from his mouth.  It was not until the next afternoon that Gong was taken to a hospital to be treated and to confirm that he had suffered a stroke.  He was then transferred to the Wuhan municipal prison.  Family members were not notified of these developments until Dec. 7, whereupon they immediately asked to go see him.  The prison said that a visit could not be arranged until Monday Dec. 10. 

At that meeting, Gong needed the assistance of two people, one on each side to hold him up, in order to enter the visitors room.  When they seated him, he was unable to sit upright and kept sliding off the chair.  He was also drooling and unable to speak.

The next day, the family submitted a request for Gong to be released on medical parole, but was told that his condition did not meet the requirements for medical parole.  Gong’s family had requested medical parole on previous occasions as his health over the years has declined, but had been rejected each time.  His two daughters have also been refused permission to visit their father.  

“We ask brothers and sisters from churches everywhere to extend a helping hand to our teacher Gong Shenliang, whose life is at stake, to pray for him…and pay attention (to his case), so that he can be released on medical parole as soon as possible and receive timely treatment,” the family said in the appeal letter received by ChinaAid.

After initially facing the death penalty Gong had his case retried in October 2002, and instead of the crime of “using a cult,” the five who had been condemned to death were convicted of “intentional assault” and sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was commuted in 2006 to 19 years in prison.

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