Jailed Chinese priest released for medical treatment

Published: 2007-05-30

HONG KONG (CNS) -- One of two Chinese priests jailed for "illegal exit" after a trip abroad was released provisionally for medical treatment in mid-May, about one and a half months before the end of his sentence. Father Peter Shao Zhumin, vicar general of the Wenzhou Diocese, was released due to severe hearing and gallstone problems. He was arrested in September and was sentenced in March to nine months in jail, with time already spent in detention applied to his sentence. The priest will soon undergo medical treatment in Beijing, church sources told UCA News, an Asian church news agency, in late May. Father Shao and the diocesan chancellor, Father Paul Jiang Surang -- also known as Jiang Sunian -- were arrested together in Shenzhen Sept. 25 after returning from a pilgrimage to Europe. Father Shao also said he "got accustomed" to the prison environment, but regretted that authorities confiscated all the photos he and Father Jiang took while on their pilgrimage to Rome and other places in Europe. Father Jiang is expected to be released in late August.

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