Lawyer Wen Donghai: One year after the Zion case, eight pastors remain in pretrial detention on suspicion of fraud and illegal business operations

One year after the Zion case，of the nearly 20 pastors who were arrested，some were released on bail and some went abroad，while the remaining eight pastors，including Wang Cong、Wang Lin、Gao Yingjia、Yin Huibin and others，remain in pretrial detention on suspicion of fraud and illegal business operations。

Yet the People’s Procuratorate of Yinhai District，Beihai，faced with more than 300 case files，and a large number of discs，did not conduct a serious review，nor hear the views of defense lawyers and defendants，and hastily filed the case with the court within a month。Strangely，once the case reached the court，no trial or pretrial conference was held，and no one raised procedural or evidentiary issues in any formal court proceeding，but the procuratorate then acknowledged that the evidence was insufficient，and recommended that the court adjourn the trial for supplementary investigation。

Since they knew the evidence was insufficient yet still forced through a hasty prosecution，that was a deliberate attempt to frame them and secure convictions，and for this reason the families’ representatives visited the People’s Procuratorate of Yinhai District、the Beihai Municipal People’s Procuratorate、and the Beihai Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision on November 9，2026，to file a complaint concerning the illegal and criminal conduct of Yinhai District Procuratorate case handlers, including abuse of power and bending the law for personal gain。

Jin Mingri，the principal person in charge of the Zion case，has already been ruled by the procuratorate not to be prosecuted and sent to the United States，several pastors have been released on bail，while the remaining eight pastors face charges of fraud and illegal business operations，and what times these are，who knows what may come。

From left to right：Ma Lianshun，Ren Quanniu，Peng Yonghe，Wen Donghai，Xie Yanyi。