News from the Frontlines
Compass Direct News
CHINA
Worship Site Demolished, Pastors Arrested
October 7 (Compass Direct News) - Following a mob attack on a church in northeastern China and the demolition of their worship site last month, the government put officials on alert to use military force against churches to quell potential "unrest," according to a leading advocacy group.
Citing reliable government sources, China Aid Association (CAA) reported that the central government on Sept. 26-27 ordered officials in "all relevant government agencies" to prepare to use military force against Christians who might react to the attack on the Fushan Church branch congregation in Linfen city, Shanxi Province.
On Sept. 13 some 400 uniformed police and civilians bearing shovels, batons, bricks, iron hooks and other weapons beat members of the church who were sleeping at the nearly finished factory building used as a worship site.
With several Fushan County officials involved in the attack, dozens of Christians were seriously injured among the more than 100 who were hurt, according to CAA. On Sept. 25 Shanxi Province officers of the Public Security Bureau detained nine Fushan Church leaders on their way to Beijing to protest the attack, and the next day authorities placed state military police inside and around the main Fushan Church building in Linfen city, the advocacy organization said. In Beijing, the crackdown ahead of the Oct. 1 National Day included the arrest of an internationally known house church rights defender. Public Security Bureau and State Security agents from Fengtai district in Beijing seized Pastor Hua Huiqi of Tent-Making Ministry on Sept. 17; his whereabouts are unknown.
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EGYPT
Christian Arrested For Distributing Tracts
October 6 (Compass Direct News) - An Egyptian Christian arrested in Cairo for handing out gospel leaflets and held in prison illegally for four days has been released, the freed Protestant Copt told Compass. Abdel Kamel, 61, was arrested on Sept. 23 in downtown Cairo for handing out copies of a Christian leaflet. As they arrested him, police told Kamel it was "unlawful" to hand out religious information on public roads. When Kamel countered that Muslims commonly hand out Islamic literature, police told him it was "more unlawful" for Christians. Kamel also didn't have his identification card. Attorney Nabil Ghobreyal said there is no law in Egypt forbidding the distribution of religious material. While in police custody, Kamel said, he remained in handcuffs for hours, was thrown to the ground, spit upon and threatened with violence. Kamel said he wasn't tortured, but when asked to describe his ordeal, he wept uncontrollably. "Why, when we are [sharing our faith], are we not even allowed to put our view across?" he said. "Why aren't we treated the same?"
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EGYPT
Coptic Family Forced To Surrender Rescued Woman
October 9 (Compass Direct News) - State Security Investigations (SSI) forces in Egypt arrested, abused and then extorted money from a Coptic Christian for rescuing his daughter from her Muslim husband, who was holding her against her will in Alexandria, according to sources in Egypt. Security forces also arrested 10 people in Alexandria and tortured them in an attempt to find all those involved in the rescue. Authorities are preparing to make a new wave of arrests, the sources said. On Sept. 30, they said, the only daughter of Gamal Labib Hanna called home and asked her family to save her from her Muslim husband.
How Hanna's daughter, Myrna Gamal Hanna, came to marry Mohamad Osama Hefnawy is disputed, but sources said the now-20-year-old woman was 19 and under the age of marital consent when she and Hefnawy were wed 10 months ago. After the rescue, Hefnawy and his neighbors filed a report with local police and the SSI. Soon after, Hanna's brothers, one brother-in-law and his mother-in-law were rounded up, charged with abduction and detained.
According to sources in Egypt, at least one of the family members was tortured until Hanna turned himself in. Sources said security forces pressured Hanna until he agreed not only to hand his daughter back to Hefnawy but also to give him several thousand dollars. "Cases like this are very common, they happen every day," said Rasha Noor, an Egyptian human rights activist and journalist living outside of Egypt. "That's usually what happens when families try to rescue daughters from their kidnappers."
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EGYPT
Coptic Blogger Pressured To Convert In Prison
October 31 (Compass Direct News) - A Coptic Christian blogger in Egypt entering his second year of prison without charge is being pressured to convert to Islam in exchange for his freedom, his attorneys said. On Oct. 3, 2008, Hani Nazeer, a 28-year-old high school social worker from Qena, Egypt and author of the blog "Karz El Hob," was arrested by Egypt's State Security Investigations and sent to Burj Al-Arab prison. Gamel Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, said Nazeer upset Islamic authorities by criticizing the increasing Islamization of Egyptian civil society and irked church leaders by lamenting political involvement of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Police had detained Nazeer's relatives at a police station and threatened to hold them until he came out of hiding, Eid said, and Nazeer turned himself into a police station in October 2008 - on the advice of Bishop Kirollos of Nag Hammadi. Nazeer reported to his attorneys that Kirollos had told him he would be in jail only four days, and his lawyers suspect collusion between Egyptian and church authorities. "Hani is in between the hate of the Islamists and the hate of the Christians," Eid said. "The Islamists of course are against him, and the church [leadership] is against him, so he's being badly squeezed between the two."
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ETHIOPIA
Jailed Evangelists Win Appeal But Remain In Prison
October 8 (Compass Direct News) - Two Christians in Ethiopia who had been sentenced to six months of prison on false charges of offering money to people to convert have successfully appealed their sentence, only to be kept in prison on a new charge. After a lower court in Amhara state threw out their appeal on Sept. 21, the State Supreme Court in Bahir Dar last week ordered Temesgen Alemayehu and Tigist Welde Amanuel to be released after paying a 500 birr (US$40) fine each, Christian sources said.
Yesterday, as the evangelists were appearing before a court in Debiretabor regarding the decision of the Supreme Court in Bahir Dar, a new charge was brought against them, Christian sources said: Inmates had signed a petition asking the district prosecutor to prosecute them for insulting the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) while in prison. The judge set Oct. 14 for the Christians to appear in court to answer to the new charge and ruled that they be kept in prison at least until then.
The maneuver shattered the two Christians' hopes of being released, church leaders said. "We are asking for the continuation of prayers," said one church leader who requested anonymity for security reasons. "We are thinking of reporting to the State's Supreme Court in Bahir Dar and see what would be the next move." Alemayehu and Amanuel, of Wengel Lealem church in Addis Ababa, had gone to Debiretabor, Amhara state in July to help establish a church.
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ETHIOPIA
Two Evangelists Released From Prison
October 28 (Compass Direct News) - The latest in a series of false charges against two Ethiopian evangelists was put to rest on Friday (Oct. 23), and they were released. A court in Debiretabor, Ethiopia acquitted the two evangelists of insulting the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) in prison, an accusation made by fellow inmates after the two were jailed on false charges of offering money for people to convert. The charge that the two Christians insulted the EOC was orchestrated by EOC members both inside and outside the prison, according to area church leaders.
Temesgen Alemayehu and Tigist Welde Amanuel had been sentenced to prison for six months on the false charge of offering money to people to convert but successfully appealed the punishment; after a lower court in Amhara state had thrown out their appeal on Sept. 21, the State Supreme Court in Bahir Dar ordered them to be to be released after paying a 500 birr (US$40) fine.
Before they could be released, however, inmates signed a petition raising the second charge against Alemayehu and Amanuel. On this charge of insulting the EOC while in prison, the judge rejected witnesses' testimony as contradictory and of no value. "Thank you to those who prayed for us," Alemayehu said after his release, adding that he was eager to return to ministry.
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INDIA
Hostilities Flare In Bjp-Run Madhya Pradesh
October 14 (Compass Direct News) - Since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in Madhya Pradesh in December 2003, Christians in the state have suffered increased attacks and concerted efforts to tarnish their image, church leaders said. Before the BJP took office the state recorded two or three attacks against Christians per year, they said, whereas Jabalpur Archbishop Gerald Almeida said that in the past five years 65 baseless charges of forceful conversion - commonly accompanied by mob violence - have been registered in his diocese alone.
The state is not able to control these groups, he added. Indeed, police routinely working with Hindu extremist groups filed an average of more than three unsubstantiated complaints of "coerced" conversions each month in the past five years, according to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Madhya Pradesh.
The Rev. Anand Muttungal, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Madhya Pradesh, said growing attacks on Christians were a symptom of fear among Hindu extremists that the Catholic Church's influence is spreading. "The Church as an organization is doing very well in many fields," Muttungal said. "It causes those fundamentalists to worry. It could be one of the main reasons for the continuous attacks on Christians."
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INDIA
Pastor Lured Into Violent Trap
October 21 (Compass Direct News) - A group of Hindu extremists in Madhya Pradesh earlier this month beat a pastor unconscious and chewed off part of his ear, pelting him with stones after he fainted from the pain. Paasu Ninama told Compass that the six attackers first lured him into a house in Malphalia village, Jhabua district with an offer of water on Oct. 4. The 35-year-old resident of Pipal Kutta village said he was on his way back from his regular Sunday service in Malphalia at 4 p.m. when six men sitting outside a house invited him in for a glass of water. When he saw a photograph of Jesus Christ in the house, he knew they had set a trap for him - Pastor Ninama said he knew they would accuse him of providing them the photo and trying to "forcibly" convert them. "I immediately turned to escape when they all jumped on me and started to beat me, accusing me of luring people to convert," he said.
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INDIA
Massive 'reconversion' Event Aimed At Christians
October 27 (Compass Direct News) - Hundreds of tribal Christians and adherents of aboriginal religion from villages in Maharashtra state were reportedly "reconverted" to Hinduism yesterday in the Mumbai suburb of Thane at a ceremony led by a Hindu nationalist cleric. Swami Narendra Maharaj's goal was to "reconvert" 6,000 Christians in the so-called purification ceremony, reported The Hindustan Times, which put the number of "reconversions" at around 800.
Hindu nationalists believe all Indians are born Hindu and therefore regard acceptance of Hinduism by those practicing other religions as "reconversion." A Hindu cleric known for opposing proclamation of Christ, Maharaj has allegedly led anti-Christian attacks in tribal regions. Maharaj told the Press Trust of India that those who "reconverted" were not coerced. Many reports of "reconversions," however, have been found to be false. In 2007, Hindi-language daily Punjab Kesari reported that four Christian families in Nahan town in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh had "reconverted" to Hinduism. But a fact-finding team from the All India Christian Council revealed that none of the members of those families had ever converted to Christianity.
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INDIA
New, More Dangerous Hindu Extremist Groups Emerge
October 29 (Compass Direct News) - After more than a decade of severe persecution, India's Christian minority is growing increasingly concerned over the mushrooming of newer and deadlier Hindu extremist groups. Gone are the days when Christians had to watch out only for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, which are closely linked with the most influential Hindu extremist umbrella organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). With voter support faltering for the RSS's political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), moderate and extremist sections within the Hindu nationalist movement are blaming each other, and militant splinter groups have emerged.
Claiming to be breakaway factions of the RSS, new groups with even more extreme ideology are surfacing. The Abhinav Bharat (Pride of India), the Rashtriya Jagran Manch (National Revival Forum), the Sri Ram Sene (Army of god Rama), the Hindu Dharam Sena (Army for Hindu Religion) and the Sanatan Sanstha (Eternal Organization) have launched numerous violent attacks on Christian and Muslim minorities. The new groups, formed mostly by former members of RSS-connected outfits, find the Hindu nationalist conglomerate too "mild" to be able to create a nation with Hindu supremacy.
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INDONESIA
Islamic Groups Shut Down Worship Of Church
October 5 (Compass Direct News) - Several Islamic organizations have pressed officials in a sub-district near Indonesia's capital city to forbid Jakarta Christian Baptist Church to worship in a house, resulting in an order to cease worship. The Islamic Defenders Front, the Betawi Forum Group, and political party Hizbut Tahrir have told officials in Sepatan sub-district, Tangerang district, near Jakarta that worship activities cannot be conducted in a residence.
The house belongs to the Rev. Bedali Hulu. Both District Officer Ismet Iskandar and a sub-district officer support the closure and have ordered Hulu to use his home only as a residence, the pastor said. The sub-district officer, who goes by the single name of Rusdy, has sent a notice ordering an end to all worship at the house. "But they have not put forth a solution," Hulu said. "For a long time we have suggested that we build a place of worship, but there has been no response from the local government." Church members feel terrorized by mobs that have stopped services, the pastor said.
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INDONESIA
Two Churches Receive Bomb Threats
October 13 (Compass Direct News) - Two churches in the greater Jakarta area have received bomb threats. In East Jakarta, the pastor of a Batak Protestant Christian Church (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan, or HKBP) on Bogor Street received a threatening phone call before Sunday services on Oct. 4. The unknown caller to the Rev. Abidan Simanungkalit's cell phone said the bomb would explode during the morning worship service, the pastor told Compass.
Bomb squad officers discovered a black package in a garbage container near the front of the church building but determined that it was not a bomb. In north Bekasi, a church leader of a Bethel Indonesia congregation received a similar threat the previous day, Oct. 3. Jeffry Lalamentik said he received the threat on his cell phone, with the unknown caller also saying, "Your church will be bombed during morning worship." Lalamentik said there was reason to take the threat seriously. In July a number of radical Islamic groups, including the Islamic Defenders' Front, Iqra Echo and the Forum for Communication and Hospitality of the Musala Mosque in Bekasi demanded that the church close.
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INDONESIA
Theology Students To Be Evicted From Campground
October 20 (Compass Direct News) - Approximately 700 students from Arastamar Evangelical Theological Seminary (SETIA) are facing eviction at the end of the month from a campground where Muslim protestors drove them last year. Education will end for students who have been living in 11 large tents and studying in the open air at Bumi Perkemahan Cibubur (BUPERTA) campground, many of them for more than a year.
Hundreds of protestors shouting "Allahu-Akbar ["God is greater]" and brandishing machetes forced the evacuation of staff and students from the SETIA campus in Kampung Pulo village on July 26-27, 2008. The Jakarta provincial government has ceased paying the rental fee of the campsite in East Jakarta, a bill that now totals 2.7 billion rupiahs (US$280,000), which camp officials said will result in the eviction of the students and the end of their studies at the end of the month.
Umar Lubis, head of BUPERTA campground, said camp officials have provided the students great leeway and shown great tolerance in the year that rent has not been paid. A Jakarta Province official told Compass that beginning in October 2008, the provincial government was no longer responsible for campsite rental for the SETIA students because the seminary refused to move to Jonggol, Bogor, West Java, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the old campus. The Rev. Matheus Mangentang, rector of SETIA, said that they refused to move to Jonggol because obtaining a permit there would have been "an extremely difficult process." Many of the students have fallen seriously ill.
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INDONESIA
Islamists Bully Villagers Into Revoking Church Permit
October 26 (Compass Direct News) - The regent of Purwakarta regency, West Java has revoked his decision to permit construction of a Catholic worship building in Cinanka village after Islamists threatened residents into withdrawing their approval. Dedi Mulyadi on Oct. 16 revoked the permit for construction of Catholic Church of Saint Mary after Islamists intimidated some of the local residents whose approval is required by Indonesian law, the priest of the church told Compass.
"Those who had signed were continually terrorized by the FPI [Front Pembela Islam, or Islamic Defenders Front]," the Rev. Agustinus Made said. "They became so frightened that when they were called to a meeting by the Interfaith Communications Forum, many did not attend. Also, the members of the Interfaith Communications Forum and the Department of Religion were also terrorized by the FPI so that they were afraid to say that they agree to the church building."
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INDONESIA
Seminary Students Evicted From Two Locations
October 30 (Compass Direct News) - In the past week hundreds of students from Arastamar Evangelical Theological Seminary (SETIA) were evicted from two sites where they had taken refuge after Muslim protestors drove them from their campus last year. With about 700 students earlier evicted from Bumi Perkemahan Cibubur campground, officers appointed by the West Jakarta District Court on Monday (Oct. 26) began evacuating more than 300 other students from a former West Jakarta municipal building.
In response, the more than 1,000 evicted SETIA students demonstrated in West Jakarta on Tuesday (Oct. 27), clogging traffic and leading to altercations with police that led to the arrest of at least five students. Six officers were injured. The eviction from the former West Jakarta mayoral office came after the city settled accounts last week with the Sawerigading Foundation, which officially gained ownership of the site from the city after a long court dispute. The Jakarta provincial government has offered to house students at city-owned office building in North Jakarta that SETIA officials said was unfit for habitation. "A barn for water buffalo is much nicer than that place," Ronald Simanjuntak secretary of the SETIA Foundation, told Compass.
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MEXICO
Prisoners Freed In Acteal Case Yet To Return Home
October 12 (Compass Direct News) - Alonso Lopez Entzin, a Tzotzil-speaking Christian in Chiapas state, Mexico, spent 11 years and eight months in prison for a crime he did not commit. Accused of participating in the tragic "Acteal massacre" in December 1997 in which 45 persons died near San Cristobal de las Casas, he and more than 80 of his neighbors were summarily arrested and charged with the murders.
On Aug. 12, the Federal Supreme Court of Mexico ordered that Lopez Entzin and 19 other indigenous men accused in the Acteal killings - 18 are Christian, including Lopez Entzin - be freed from El Amate Penal facility in Chiapas. The court is reviewing the cases of another 31 men convicted in connection with the massacre. Six more defendants will be granted new trials. Lopez Entzin added that winning their freedom will not be easy. "There are thousands and thousands of brothers who prayed for us inside the jail - thank God He answered those prayers," he said through tears. "That's why those brothers who remain behind in El Amate believe that if God's will is done, they will soon be free." Despite being freed, the 20 men have yet to resume normal life with their families. They are living in makeshift half-way houses provided by the federal government in hot, bustling Tuxtla Gutierrez, awaiting re-settlement on land that state authorities have promised them.
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PAKISTAN
Police Torture Christians Arrested In Islamic Attack
October 23 (Compass Direct News) - Two Christians in Gojra, Pakistan who allegedly fired warning shots as an Islamist mob approached that burned seven Christians to death on Aug. 1 told Compass they were tortured after police arrested them. Only one of the hundreds of Muslim assailants responsible for burning at least 50 homes is in jail for the fire assault on Gojra's Christian Town, but sources said Islamists have provided police a pretense for arresting the two Christian brothers who gave shelter to 300 people.
Naveed Masih, 32, alias Fauji ("the Soldier") and his 25-year-old brother Nauman Masih were arrested on Sept. 2 and Sept. 7 respectively for "rioting with deadly weapons and spreading terror with firing," although the latter has been released on bail. From his jail cell, Naveed Masih told Compass that he and his brother were taken to the Police Training Centre in Choong, where they were kept in illegal detention for 18 days. Police kept them hungry for days, he said; when they asked for food, officers told them to confess that they had fired weapons, he added. Naveed Masih also said police tortured them to try to force them to say they had links with terrorist organizations that provided arms and ammunition to them. "Sometimes we were hung in a dark well while our faces were covered with a cloth," Naveed Masih said. "They beat me with cane sticks on the back of my hands and sometimes hung me upside down and then brutally beat me."
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SOMALIA
Islamic Extremists Kill Another Church Leader
October 1 (Compass Direct News) - Islamic militants in Somalia this week killed a woman who led an underground Christian movement in the war-torn country. Sources told Compass that a leader of Islamic extremist al Shabaab militia in Lower Juba identified only as Sheikh Arbow shot to death 46-year-old Mariam Muhina Hussein at 2 p.m. on Monday (Sept. 28) in Marerey village after discovering she had six Bibles. Marerey is eight kilometers (five miles) from Jilib, part of the neighboring Middle Juba region.
Local sources said that on Sunday (Sept. 27) Arbow sent his wife to the house of Hussein, a Somali Bantu, to confirm the presence of the Bibles. Pretending to be interested in Christianity, the militia leader's wife confirmed the existence of the Bibles. The next day, Arbow arrived at Hussein's house and, in a friendly manner, claimed that he wanted to check something in the Bible. Knowing only that Arbow was a fellow ethnic Somali Bantu and having met his wife the previous day, Hussein innocently gave one to him, sources said. Arbow then told her that he was looking for "Christians who have defiled the Islamic religion," a source said, and he ordered her to get the other Bibles. Upon receiving the Bibles, sources said, Arbow fired three bullets at Hussein, who died instantly.
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SOMALIA
Imprisoned Christian In Somaliland On Hunger Strike
October 15 (Compass Direct News) - A convert from Islam in Somalia's self-declared state of Somaliland has staged a hunger strike to protest his transfer to a harsh prison in a remote part of the country. Osman Nour Hassan was arrested on Aug. 3 for allegedly providing Christian literature in Pepsi village, on the outskirts of the breakaway region's capital city, Hargeisa. On Sept. 9 authorities transferred him from Hargeisa to Mandere prison, 60 kilometers (37 miles) away - a difficult, week-long trip for visitors that is expensive by Somali standards.
His Muslim family and area sheiks arranged for the transfer, said a source on condition of anonymity. Leaving Islam and promoting any religion other than Islam in Somaliland is prohibited, contrary to international standards for religious freedom such as Article 18 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Authorities have thwarted efforts to secure an attorney for Hassan by insisting that he cannot appeal his sentence, the source said. No Christian has ever tried to address a religious rights violation through the courts in Somaliland, he said. "He is in need of a lawyer to help him, which seems not forthcoming," he said. "But he cannot be allowed the right to a defense anyway. He feels neglected, so he rejected to eat food to protest the mistreatment."
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SOMALIA
Christian Who Refused To Wear Veil Is Killed
October 27 (Compass Direct News) - Three masked members of a militant Islamist group in Somalia last week shot and killed a Somali Christian who declined to wear a veil as prescribed by Muslim custom, according to a Christian source in Somalia. Members of the comparatively "moderate" Suna Waljameca group killed Amina Muse Ali, 45, on Oct. 19 at 9:30 p.m. in her home in Galkayo, in Somalia's autonomous Puntland region, said the source. Ali had told Christian leaders that she had received several threats from members of Suna Waljameca for not wearing a veil, symbolic of adherence to Islam.
She had said members of the group had long monitored her movements because they suspected she was a Christian. The source said Ali had called him on Oct. 4 saying, "My life is in danger. I am warned of dire consequences if I continue to live without putting on the veil." Speaking by telephone from Somalia, the source told Compass, "I was shocked beyond words when I received the news that she had been shot dead. I wished I could have recalled her to my location. We have lost a long-serving Christian."
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TURKEY
Lawyer Calls Christians' Trial A 'scandal'
October 16 (Compass Direct News) - After three prosecution witnesses testified yesterday that they didn't even know two Christians on trial for "insulting Turkishness and Islam," a defense lawyer called the trial a "scandal." Speaking after yesterday's hearing in the drawn-out trial, defense attorney Haydar Polat said the case's initial acceptance by a state prosecutor in northwestern Turkey was based only on a written accusation from the local gendarmerie headquarters unaccompanied by any documentation.
"It's a scandal," Polat said. "It was a plot, a planned one, but a very unsuccessful plot, as there is no evidence." Turkish Christians Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal were arrested in October 2006; after a two-day investigation they were charged with allegedly slandering Turkishness and Islam while talking about their faith with three young men in Silivri, an hour's drive west of Istanbul.
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TURKEY
Police Official Axed Amid Allegations In Murders
October 22 (Compass Direct News) - The head of Turkey's police intelligence department was removed on Friday (Oct. 16) amid allegations that he failed to prevent the murder of the Christian editor of an Armenian weekly and the slayings of three Christians in this city in southeastern Turkey. Ramazan Akyurek is also accused of withholding evidence in those cases and improperly investigating the murder of a Catholic priest in 2006.
After a Malatya trial hearing on Friday, prosecution lawyers in the case commended the removal of Akyurek for negligence but said it came too late. Akyurek has been placed in a different position within police headquarters in Ankara. Prior to the January 2007 murder of Hrant Dink of the Armenian weekly Agos, Akyurek reportedly received a report about the orchestrated plan to kill the editor.
That clearly implied that he was one of the masterminds behind the murder, according to Erdal Dogan, one of the prosecuting attorneys in the Malatya case. While heading the investigation of the Dink murder, Aykurek allegedly not only witheld intelligence but also tried to affect the outcome of the trial, claiming in his investigation report that a group of "friends" planned to kill Dink because he offended Turkey. "This is a disaster," Dogan said. "The same happened with the Malatya massacre. "We know he had information on all the developments of the massacre, but he didn't act on it. He tried to cover it up. We know that they were following the movements of the killers."
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VIETNAM
Church Registration Inches Along
October 22 (Compass Direct News) - The Assemblies of God (AoG) in Vietnam on Monday (Oct. 19) received an "operating license," which the government described as "the first step . . .before becoming officially legal." This operating license gives permission for all of the congregations of the Vietnam AoG to "carry on religious activity" anywhere in the country for the next year.
During this time the church body must prepare a doctrinal statement, a constitution and bylaws and a four-year working plan to be approved by the government before being allowed to hold an organizing assembly. The operating license is the first one granted since five were granted two years ago. The last of those five churches, the Christian Fellowship Church, was finally allowed to hold its organizing assembly in late September. With no more operating licenses being granted, the future of registration is in a kind of limbo.
Sources said a lower level of registration in which local authorities are supposed to offer permission for local congregations to carry on religious activities while the more complicated higher levels are worked out has largely failed. Only about 10 percent of the many hundreds of applications have received a favorable reply, they said, leaving most house churches vulnerable to arbitrary harassment or worse.
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