Christian Captives

Vietnam

Vietnamese Christian Le Thi Hong Lien was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment on November 12, 2004. On the day of her trial, she could neither walk nor stand due to the severe torture she had undergone since her detention in June 2004.

Mennonite pastor Nguyen Hong Quang’s legal appeal, due on February 2, has been postponed indefinitely in Vietnam. Pastor Hong Quang had been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment on November 12, 2004. A few days later, uniformed officers searched his home, and 12 Bible students living there were forbidden to return, according to his wife, Le Thi Phu Dung.

Egypt

Egyptian Christian Hany Samir Tawfik was deported to Cairo from Saudi Arabia on June 15, 2002, and was immediately imprisoned for two months by airport police. When he refused to act for the security services as an informer against an evangelical minister, he was again imprisoned. Prison officers tore his Bible to pieces. Torture and lack of medical attention have left Hany Tawfik psychologically broken and blind in one eye.

Christian girls in Egypt are abducted, raped, and are forced to convert to Islam and then sign a marriage contract. The Egyptian authorities recognize such “marriages” as legitimate. Heidi Hakim is one such girl. Please pray for her as her family desperately tries to free her from these violent captors.

 
 
Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian police arrested 40 Pakistani Christians on Friday, April 22, three days before President Bush received Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. The “crime” of the Pakistani Christians was to meet to pray in a private home. While Saudi Arabia finances the building of militant mosques and koranic schools in the USA, all Christian worship is banned by Saudi law. Please pray for the safety of the Christians imprisoned in Saudi jails. Please also pray that President Bush will secure the freedom of all Christian prisoners in Saudi Arabia – one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East.

Cuba

Two brothers, Luis Enrique and José Daniel Ferret Garcia, continue in solitary confinement in Cuba, with sentences lasting until 2031 and 2028 respectively. The two Catholic laymen were imprisoned in 2003 for human rights activities.

 
Maimed for his Faith

Pakistan

In Pakistan, a Moselm customer cut off the arm of Christian shopkeeper Shahbaz Masih in an unprovoked attack. Only the intervention of Bishop Josep Coutts of Faisalabad led to the arrest of the perpetrator. Shahbaz Masih is now living in hiding.

 
Free at Last

Peru

Evangelical Christian farmer Rafael Custodio Retis of Peru was released in January — earlier than expected — from Huamancaca prison. CSI had campaigned for Retis’ release after he was sentenced to 15 years in June 2004.

Vietnam

For nearly four years, Catholic priest Rev. Tadeo Nguyen van Ly languished in Ba-Sao prison camp in Vietnam. His “crime,” according to the communist authorities, was passing information on human rights abuses to organizations overseas. Over the years, CSI has campaigned for his release. On February 1, 2005, Rev. Tadeo was set free a year before the end of his sentence.