CINA: PENA MORTE, COMMUTATA IN ERGASTOLO A LEADER CRISTIANOALLA VIGILIA DELLA VISITA DI JIANG ZEMIN IN USA

PECHINO, 10 OTT - Mutando le imputazioni, la Cina ha commutato in ergastolo la pena di morte contro il dirigente di una congregazione cristiana, due settimane prima della visita del capo dello Stato Jiang Zemin negli Stati Uniti. Lo riferisce oggi il 'Centro informazioni sui diritti umani' che ha sede a Hong Kong.

    Gong Shengliang, condannato inizialmente da una Corte dello Hebei per attivita' religiosa illegale, e' stato riconosciuto colpevole di ''stupro'' dalla Corte suprema a cui era ricorso in appello, riferisce il Centro informazioni. Altri due dirigenti sono stati condannati all'ergastolo e due a 15 anni di carcere per aggressione. Lo stupro in Cina e' normalmente punito con la condanna a morte. Le sentenze non sono quasi mai riviste.   

Secondo il 'Centro informazioni', la congregazione 'Huanan', a cui appartengono i dirigenti, e' stata fondata nel 1991 e ha 50.000 fedeli in dieci regioni.    

Almeno 16 congregazioni cristiane sono state perseguitate dal governo cinese. La liberta' di culto in Cina e' limitata alle organizzazioni approvate dal governo.   In Cina attualmente vi sono almeno 55 milioni di cristiani. 

CHINA: Death penalty overturned for Christian group

An appeals court in central China has overturned the death sentences of 5 leaders of a banned Christian sect and ordered a retrial - an exceptional move in a country that controls religion tightly, a human rights group said Tuesday.

 The supreme court in Hubei province said a lower court's decision last year to impose the death sentences "was not clear and was not based on enough evidence," the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

 The Jingmen City Intermediate Court must retry Gong Shengliang, Li Ying, Xiu Fuming, Hu Yong and Gong Bangkun on Wednesday, the high court ordered in its Sept. 22 ruling, according to the center.

 The court on Tuesday referred all inquiries to China's national Supreme Court, which said it had no details.

 Gong established the South China Church in 1991 as a splinter sect of another Christian group, the Total Scope Church, the center said.

 It grew over a decade to 50,000 members spread through some 10 provinces in eastern and central China.

 China's Bureau of State Security arrested Gong and the others in April 2001 after labeling the church a cult, part of an ongoing campaign against the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual sect and other groups seen as challenging the Communist Party's political monopoly.

 The 5 were convicted in December 2001 of "using an evil cult to undermine the enforcement of the law," the center said.

 The charges against the 5 are the most serious handed down to the leaders of groups labeled by Beijing as cults since the crackdown began in July 1999.

 Supporters of Falun Gong, which combines traditional Chinese exercise techniques with some Buddhist principles, have been given prison sentences of up to 18 years.

 China allows only government-monitored churches and harasses and imprisons Christians, Buddhists and others who worship outside the official system.

 A report released Monday by the U.S. State Department put China among 6 countries guilty of attempts to control religious belief or practice.

 The other 5 are Myanmar, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea.

 In China, "unapproved religious and spiritual groups remained under scrutiny and, in some cases, harsh repression," the report said.

 The government also continued to control the "growth and scope of the activity of religious groups to prevent the rise of possible sources of authority outside of the control of the government," the report said.