Two Christian pastors have been arrested, separately, by the Muslim government in Sudan and now face the death penalty for spying. However the legal director from the American Center for Law and Justice say there is no evidence of any wrongdoing, yet the judge is continuing with the case against these two pastors.
The first pastor, Yat Michael Ruot, traveled to Sudan last December in order to deliver a Sunday sermon and was subsequently arrested after his sermon. The second pastor, Peter Yein Reith, who had written to Sudan’s Office of Religious Affairs to inquire about Ruot, traveled to Sudan a few weeks later in January and was summoned by Sudan’s Security Services where he was also arrested:
FOX NEWS – Ruot was arrested last December after he delivered a Sunday sermon in the Sudanese city of Omdurman. Reith was arrested a few weeks later, on Jan. 11, when he was called in by Security Services for unknown reasons. His supporters believe it may have been because of a letter he wrote to the government’s Office of Religious Affairs in Khartoum regarding the arrest of Ruot.
Both pastors subsequently disappeared for a few months until they transported to a detention center in Khartoum:
The whereabouts of the pastors — both of whom belong to the Presbyterian Evangelical Church – were unknown for months, a violation of international law. In April, their location was finally revealed when they were transported to a detention center in the capital city.
They have been falsely charged by Sudan’s Muslim government of undermining the constitution and spying and have been put on trial where they could face the death penalty in this Muslim kangaroo court:
Yat Michael Ruot and Peter Yein Reith, both Presbyterian pastors from the seceded nation of South Sudan, have been held since around the beginning of the year by Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services on charges of undermining the constitution and espionage. Supporters have long maintained that their arrest and subsequent trial is nothing more than an ongoing witch hunt by a militant Islamist government in the capital city of Khartoum.
Tiffany Barrans, the legal director from the American Center for Law and Justice, says the charges are bogus and there simply isn’t any evidence whatsoever to substantiate the charges:
“Pastors Michael and Peter are two of the most recent victims under the power-hungry National Intelligence and Security Service of Sudan,” Tiffany Barrans, international legal director of the American Center for Law and Justice, told FoxNews.com. “The crimes alleged against these pastors carry potentially serious sentences, including death or life imprisonment.”
“[T]he judge was presented with evidence far below any threshold for conviction,” Barrans said. “There is zero evidence that either pastor undermined the constitutional system of Sudan, conducted espionage, promoted hatred, disturbed the peace, or blasphemed.
Apparently zero evidence didn’t stop the prosecution in this Muslim court from going ahead with their false prosecution. The defense, however, has only been given 15 minutes to meet with the two pastors in order to prepare something for the court. What a joke!
The prosecution rested its case against the pastors last week but the defense team has not been allowed to adequately prepare their case, with the judge allowing attorneys to meet with the pastors for just 15 minutes.
“Despite this lack of evidence, the judge has refused to dismiss the case,” Barrans added. “Though the defense will get its day in court, the attorney has been denied access to his clients to prepare an adequate defense.”
“The Sudanese government persecution of these two Christian pastors is emblematic of its broader hostility towards diversity,” Akshaya Kumar, a Sudan and South Sudan policy analyst with the Enough Project told FoxNews.com. “Across Sudan, communities are being persecuted for the simple crime of expressing an identity that conflicts with the ruling party’s restrictive definition of what it means to be Sudanese.”
Sudan is holding the two pastors in the same prison, but have separated them from each other:
They are currently being held at Kober Prison in North Khartoum and while they are no longer being held in shackles or in solitary confinement, they have been separated within the prison’s general population, leaving them unable to depend on each other for support. They are also denied visits from their wives.
It is our heart that God would protect these Christians from the persecution of their enemies and give their families the strength and faith to endure this hardship.