U.S. Court Urged to Reverse Ruling Denying Tortured Chinese Christian Asylum
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
September 6, 2005
(AgapePress) - The Alliance Defense Fund -- America's largest legal alliance defending religious liberty -- is currently representing a member of China's underground church who is fighting to gain asylum in the United States after being persecuted for his religious faith in his native country.
Last month a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied an asylum application for Xiandong Li of Ningbo, China. There, Li was a member of an underground evangelical church that met in his home. When this came to the attention of the police, he was arrested, since China only permits Christians to worship in official, state-sanctioned "churches" that millions of Catholic and evangelical Christians reject.
According to testimony in the case, Li was taken into custody and tortured at the local police department for holding an illegal church service. Labeling him a reactionary, the police interrogated the Christian man at length, during which time he was beaten, handcuffed and forced to kneel, had his hair pulled, and was kicked and struck with a bar when the police did not like his answers to their questions.
The police jailed Li for five days then forced him to clean public toilets without pay. After his release, Li obtained a visa and left China in 1995, fearing further torture and imprisonment. After he failed to return upon the visa's expiration, immigration officials sought to deport him, and Li sought protection under the Convention Against Torture Act, or else voluntary departure. If the Christian applicant is denied asylum and deported back to China, he faces two years' imprisonment.
Fifth Circuit's 'Terrible Decision' in Li v. Gonzalez
ADF senior legal counsel David Cortman, Li's legal representative, says although the testimony "that the Chinese government ... [has] harassed, interrogated, detained, and physically abused members of unauthorized religious groups" was not contradicted in Li's case, the Fifth Circuit judges on the panel nevertheless denied the underground church member's application for asylum. ADF has filed an appeal on his behalf.
"What's incredible about [this case] is, the court admitted to the horrendous conditions in China," Cortman notes. "It's common knowledge, well-documented, about the human rights abuses and the civil rights and religious rights abuses in China."
And yet, in what ADF describes as one of the most egregious religious cases coming out of China in recent years, the attorney asserts, "The court basically said, 'His testimony is credible; we know all these things are going on.'" Still, for some reason the Fifth Circuit judges held that just because Li was "punished because of his religious activities doesn't mean he was punished because of his religion," Cortman says.
The ADF senior legal counsel contends that the three-judge panel erred as a matter of law and as a matter of human rights. Imagine, he says, "if someone was in the United States, and they were inside their house having five or six people over to study their religion -- whatever that happened to be -- and police break down the door, take you away, handcuff you, bring you down to the station, shock you, beat you, throw you in jail."
Such an abusive scenario, Cortman asserts, is "something we should not tolerate, even if it is in another country. And, being that the United States should be the safe place for religious freedom, we should accept people who are being tortured for their religious faith and allow them to come here and experience the religious freedom that we all enjoy."
A recent ADF news release points out that just last month another U.S. court, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, granted asylum to a Mexican national on the grounds that being a homosexual would subject him to persecution in Mexico. Meanwhile, the Fifth Circuit has denied Li, whose religious persecution claim was, according to his ADF attorney "one of the most clear-cut cases imaginable," and his torture and persecution for merely being a Christian, "undisputed."
ADF hopes that fear of embarrassing China did not play a role "this terrible decision," Cortman says. The legal alliance is seeking a review of the case by the full Fifth Circuit court and will, if denied, appeal the matter to the United States Supreme Court.
