Chinese pastor Zhang Shaojie has been released after 12 years in prison.
Pastor Zhang, pictured with his 84-year-old mother, was detained in November, 2013, following a dispute with local government authorities over a plot of land that his church had the legally acquired rights to.
He and other church leaders had been planning to have a new church and ministry centre built on the land. The year after being detained he was charged with ‘gathering a crowd to disrupt public order’ and ‘fraud’.
Church members believed the Chinese authorities had targeted him in order to obtain the land and to prevent the ministry of the church from growing.
Following his release, Pastor Zhang expressed his thanks for the sustained prayers of Christians around the world. ‘Coming out of prison during this month of “Thanksgiving” has been full of God’s grace,’ he said, adding that had it not been for the prayers of many, ‘I might not be here today, and might have been “disappeared”‘.
Release International’s partner for China said, ‘We rejoice at his freedom, but we continue to pray for him and his family as the Chinese Communist Party has installed a large number of facial recognition cameras around his home and has not allowed anyone to visit.’