5 Chinese church leaders sentenced to labor camp

Five members of an unregistered congregation of Chinese Protestants have been sentenced to two years of "education through labor," AP reported, citing a report issued by US-based monitoring group China Aid Association. Chinese law allows police to sentence people to up to three years in labor camps without trial. The report follows the arrest of five other leaders of the same sect in Shanxi province. The leaders were detained for organizing a protest against a dawn raid on services at the 50,000-member Linfen Fushan Church on September 13. Beijing requires all Protestants to worship in the non-denominational (excluding Catholics) Three-Self Patriotic Movement. Unregistered churches are known as "house churches" and suffer varying degrees of harassment from authorities.