Hui Christian Pastor Ma Yan was sentenced to nine months in prison for ‘organising illegal gatherings’ by the Yinchuan Railway Transportation Court in China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on 24 March.

Ma was charged and tried on 10 February 2025 for organising a gathering of no more than ten Christians in Jinfeng District, Yinchuan, Ningxia, which was raided by police officers on 9 August 2024. CSW sources suggested that Ma pleaded guilty during the trial because the charge of ‘organising illegal gatherings’ carries a lighter sentence compared to other charges and does not attract moral stigmatisation. 

The US-based rights organisation China Aid reports that Ma’s sentence will be offset by 32 days of previous administrative detentions, and that since he has been criminally detained since 20 August 2024, he will be released on 17 April.

CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘It is completely unacceptable that Pastor Ma Yan has been sentenced to nine months in prison for organising a small gathering of Christians, as is his fundamental right under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While we note that he will be released soon, we maintain that he should not have spent a day in detention in the first place, and insist that the authorities must acquit him immediately.’