Freed Pastors Arrive Home from Sudan after Ordeal of False Charges

Freed Pastors Arrive Home from Sudan after Ordeal of False Charges

 

By Jeremy Reynalds, Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service (jeremyreynalds@gmail.com)  

 

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN (ANS. AUG. 19, 2015) --  Two South Sudanese pastors arrived home in Juba from Khartoum, Sudan today after an eight-month ordeal of imprisonment, fabricated charges of capital crimes and a ban on leaving the country.

 

According to a story by Morning Star News, while Revs. Peter Yein Reith and Yat Michael were acquitted of the crimes calling for the death penalty on Aug. 5, they were prevented from boarding a plane out of the country the next day. 

 

Sudan's notorious National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) had ordered the travel ban when they were initially detained - Michael on Dec. 14 and Reith on Jan. 11 - and gave the orders to the airport personnel.

 

Attorneys for the two pastors had been working for their release since then, but it was not immediately clear why they were released. 

 

Michael and Reith were transported from Juba International Airport to a church in Hai Jebel in Juba, where they attended a thanksgiving service.

 

“Thank God for their arrival home,” Michael’s wife told Morning Star News after the service.

 

South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SSPEC) leaders welcomed the pastors, who expressed their gratitude to Morning Star News amid the cheering congregation. 

 

An international outcry erupted over their weeks-long incarceration without charges after Morning Star News on Dec. 28, 2014 broke the news of Michael's arrest, and on Jan. 20 published the first account of Reith's arrest.

 

“Thank you very much, Morning Star News, for your great role which led to our release from jail,” Reith said.

 

Reith and Michael were convicted of lesser charges and released on the time they had served. 

 

Reith was convicted under Article 65 of  “establishing or participating in a criminal organization,” while Michael was convicted under Article 69 of “disturbing public peace.”

 

Morning Star News said the pastors had also been charged with spying (Article 53), punishable by death, life imprisonment or prison and confiscation of property; undermining the constitutional system (Article 50), punishable by death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment and confiscation of property; disclosure and obtaining information and official documents (Article 55), punishable by two years in prison or a fine; blasphemy/insulting religious creeds (Article 125), punishable by one year of imprisonment or a fine or no more than 40 lashes; and joint acts in execution of a criminal conspiracy (Article 21).

 

Agents from NISS, said to be manned by hard-line Islamists, arrested the pastors.

 

Michael, 49, was arrested after encouraging Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church. The church was the subject of government harassment, arrests and demolition of part of its worship center as Muslim investors have tried to take it over. 

 

Morning Star News said Reith, 36, was arrested on Jan. 11 after submitting a letter from SSPEC leaders inquiring about the whereabouts of Michael.

 

Police in North Khartoum on Dec. 2 beat and arrested 38 Christians from the church that Michael encouraged and fined most of them. They were released later that night.

 

On Oct. 5, 2013, Sudan's police and security forces broke through the church fence, beat and arrested Christians in the compound and claimed  parts of the property belonged to a Muslim investor accompanying them. 

 

Morning Star News said as Muslims nearby shouted, “Allahu Akbar (God is greater),” plainclothes police and personnel from NISS broke onto the property aboard a truck and two Land Cruisers. After beating several Christians who were in the compound, they arrested some of them. They were all released later that day.

 

Harassment, arrests and persecution of Christians have intensified since the secession of South Sudan in July 2011, when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed to adopt a stricter version of sharia (Islamic law) and recognize only Islamic culture and the Arabic language. 

 

The Sudanese Minister of Guidance and Endowments announced in April 2013 that no new licenses would be granted for building new churches in Sudan, citing a decrease in the South Sudanese population.

 

Sudan since 2012 has expelled foreign Christians and bulldozed church buildings on the pretext that they belonged to South Sudanese. 

 

Besides raiding Christian bookstores and arresting Christians, Morning Star News said authorities threatened to kill South Sudanese Christians who do not leave or cooperate with them in their effort to find other Christians.

 

Sudan fought a civil war with the south Sudanese from 1983 to 2005. In  June 2011, shortly before the secession of South Sudan the following month, the government began fighting a rebel group in the Nuba Mountains that has its roots in South Sudan.

 

Due to its treatment of Christians and other human rights violations, Morning Star News said Sudan has been designated a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. State Department since 1999, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended the country remain on the list in its 2015 report.

 

Sudan ranked sixth on Christian support organization Open Doors' 2015 World Watch List of 50 countries where Christians face most persecution, moving up from 11th place the previous year.

 

For more information visit http://morningstarnews.org

 

Photo caption: 1) Peter Yein Reith and Yat Michael. 1) Jeremy Reynalds.

 

About the writer: Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, www.joyjunction.org. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "From Destitute to Ph.D." Additional details on "From Destitute to Ph.D." are available at www.myhomelessjourney.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Elma. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@gmail.com. 

 

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