A Chinese Protestant pastor has been sentenced to 14 years in prison and his wife to 12 years after convicting them of corruption, financial crimes and gathering people to disturb social order, an official provincial newspaper reported on Friday.
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The sentences for the pastor, Bao Guohua, and his wife, Xing Wenxiang, were among the harshest imposed recently on clergy members and their associates in China.
The court had sentenced an additional 10 people who were members of Mr. Bao’s church or a Christian group in the same city, Jinhua, in Zhejiang Province, but details were not provided for those sentences.
Chinese media said Bao Guohua had been found guilty of embezzling money from his congregation in Zhejiang province.
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Bao and Xing were detained in July last year after they spoke out against forced cross removals in Zhejiang.
Planning officials there have removed more than 1,000 crosses from churches over the past two years.
The authorities have justified the tearing down of crosses by saying they break planning rules.
But many believe officials want to limit Christianity across the south-eastern province, where the religion has a strong following. Zhejiang is home to many churches, particularly in the city of Wenzhou.
