Imprisoned Lao Pastor ‘Extremely Weak,’ Family Says

July 13, 2011
Posted by
The Voice of the Martyrs

Screen shot 2011-07-13 at 11.01.07 AM The following is from our friends at Compass Direct.  Click here for the full story.

Two church leaders in prison; conditions improve for expelled Katin Christians.

DUBLIN, July 8 (CDN) — A Lao pastor imprisoned six months ago for holding a “secret meeting” has lost weight under harsh prison conditions and is extremely weak, according to his family.
 
Police arrested Wanna and fellow pastor and inmate Yohan, both identified only by a single name, on Jan. 4 along with several other Christians in central Laos’s Khammouan Province.
 
Prison authorities have repeatedly told the men that they will “walk free” as soon as they sign documents renouncing their faith, advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) said in a press statement today.
 
Wanna is the pastor of an unregistered church in Nakoon village, Hinboun district, while Yohan pastors a similar church in nearby Tonglar village.
 
Hinboun district police arrested Wanna, Yohan and nine others at gunpoint on Jan. 4 and charged them with holding a “secret meeting” after they celebrated Christmas without prior approval. Police then loaded the Christians onto a truck and took them to Khammouan provincial prison in Takkhet City. (See www.compassdirect.org, “Lao Officials Arrest 11 Christians at Gunpoint,” Jan. 6)