(AgapePress) - Four Christian women who were released by a Chinese court last week have been arrested again by officers of China’s Public Security Bureau.

The four were re-arrested only hours after they were found innocent of charges relating to their membership in an underground church. Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says the four were arrested to keep them silent.

"All of them were sexually abused and tortured while they were in custody, and were planning a lawsuit against the police and against prison officials that had allowed this abuse to go on," Nettleton explains. "So they have been re-arrested by the police and sent away for three years of what the Chinese call 're-education through labor.' "

Police in China can send a prisoner to jail for up to three years without a formal trial or formal charges.

Nettleton says the treatment of the four women proves that China is not serious about religious freedom. He says Christians in the United States can pray for the women and can also take other action.

"I think we need to be on the phone to the Chinese embassy and to our government officials," he says. "Chinese President Jiang Zemin will be in Texas later this month to meet with President Bush, and our hope is that [Bush] will be very firm in raising the issue of religious freedom in China."

Several leaders of the underground church were given life sentences for their role in the Christian church.

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