Pastor Shi Enhao (55), a house church pastor and vice president of the Chinese House Church Alliance, was released from prison unexpectedly on Friday 20 January 2012. The legal basis for the early release is not yet known.

Pastor Shi's large house church of several thousand members meets at various locations around the city of Suqian in Jiangsu province in eastern China. On 4 March 2011, Pastor Shi was preaching in Nanyang, Henan province, when he was seized by officers from the Suqian Municipal Public Security Bureau and officials from the religious affairs bureau who had made a special trip to Nanyang to arrest him. He was brought back to Suqian, beaten and detained.

On 31 May, Pastor Shi and some of his co-workers were formally arrested by the police in Suqian, and he and a woman named Chang Meiling, a lay leader, were sentenced to twelve days of administrative detention. On the night of 1 June, more than ten people searched Pastor Shi's home and confiscated books and documents. Immediately upon his release on 12 June, he put in criminal detention by the Suqian Public Security Bureau.

In July, Pastor Shi was sentenced to two years in labour camp, for "re-education through labour". This extra-judicial punishment is handed out by the police and requires no trial or conviction. It is often used for those who have committed minor criminal offences or for dissidents and adherents of religious groups, such as house church Christians and Falun Gong practitioners. The charge on Pastor Shi's sentencing papers is "illegal meetings and illegal organising of venues for religious meetings."

The Domestic Security Protection Department of the police confiscated 140,000 yuan (approximately €15,000) of donations to Pastor Shi's church, along with a church vehicle, musical instruments and choir robes. They verbally threatened Pastor Shi's three daughters and sons-in-law. (ChinaAid)