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Pakistan High Court To Hear a Major Blasphemy Case

Sep. 27Pakistan High Court To Hear a...

Many of you know about Shahzad Masih, a young Christian man who was only 16 years old when he was arrested in July 2017 over a false accusation of blasphemy. He was sentenced to death by hanging in November 2022 by a trial court in Pakistan. Shahzad’s only “crime” was that he told his Muslim co-worker that his father’s Muslim friend, Ali, uses...More

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Jewish Iranian Sentenced to Death

Jewish Iranian Sentenced to Death

Iran is preparing to execute an innocent young man because he’s Jewish, and he’s running out of time. The ACLJ is advocating for his life at the United Nations, having just filed an urgent complaint with the U.N.’s Special Procedures seeking swift international intervention to stop the execution and overturn this...More

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John Cao

After over a year of delays, the Pu’er Intermediated Court finally issued a decision in Pastor John Cao’s appeal. At 10 am on July 25, 2019, they announced that they were upholding the Menglian Trial Court’s wrongful conviction and sentence of 7 years imprisonment.

Pastor Cao – a U.S. permanent legal resident – had been arrested and convicted while conducting humanitarian aid and ministering as a Christian to the people of China and Burma (Myanmar), something he has done for more than 30 years.

Although the court accepted the appeal in April of last year, which allows for a hearing, there was no hearing allowed in this case.  Instead, in an unprecedented move, the Court simply made a public announcement of its ruling and upheld the trial court’s decision without further examination of the evidence. This ruling comes after the Pu’er Court illegally and repeatedly extended the appeal deadline for over a year.

Even though it was a public announcement, the Court did not allow any of Pastor Cao’s friends or family, except his mother and sister, to sit in the courtroom.  During the public announcement, the outside of the courthouse was heavily guarded by police officers, which is highly unusual. Furthermore, the U.S. consulate officers’ repeated requests to attend the announcement were denied.

Now that his sentence has been upheld, Pastor Cao will be transferred from the Menglian Detention Center to prison. Which prison is unclear as of now.  Please continue to pray for Pastor Cao and his family, including that justice would prevail and Pastor Cao would be released. He has already suffered over two years of wrongful imprisonment in China, simply for his faith.  We cannot allow that injustice to continue. At the ACLJ, we will continue working to bring Pastor Cao home safely to his wife and family here in America.

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Jordan Sekulow  //

Mar 25, 2024

We are pleased to announce that Pastor John Cao has finally been released from prison in China. He has completed serving a seven-year sentence after being wrongfully convicted for simply living out his...

CeCe Heil  //

Jul 29, 2022

On July 19, 2022, President Biden issued an “ Executive Order on Bolstering Efforts to Bring Hostages and Wrongfully Detained United States Nationals Home .” The order declares that the wrongful detention of...

Olivia Summers  //

Mar 05, 2021

Anniversaries should be the celebrations of good things in life, marking milestones and happy moments, like weddings. But they are not always. March 5, 2021, marks the four-year anniversary of Christian Pastor...