German politicians must try to save lives of imprisoned Christians

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has appealed to the Human Rights Commissioner of the Federal Government, Bärbel Kofler, and the head of the parliamentary group of the CDU, Volker Kauder, to try to ensure that four Christians who are imprisoned in Sudan will not be sentenced to death. “There is no other European country that has similarly close political relations to Sudan. Germany is quite influential there, and our country is seen as an advocate of the East African country within the EU,” said Ulrich Delius, the STP’s Africa consultant, in Göttingen on Thursday. “The four Christians – including two pastors and a missionary – might soon be sentenced to death in an unfair trial. Sudan’s intelligence agency is trying to intimidate and criminalize the Christian minority. Something has to be done to save their lives – urgently!”

The trial against the two Sudanese pastors Kuwa Shemaal and Hassan Abdelrahim Kodi, the Czech missionary and filmmaker Petr Jasek, and Abdelmoneim Abdelmoula, a convert from Darfur, was interrupted shortly after its beginning August 21, 2016. However, the STP expects that the trial will be continued soon. The defendants are charged with spreading false news, defamation of the state, espionage, incitement to hatred and violence against the authorities, and supporting armed opposition movements.

They are accused of having spread information about the persecution the Christian minority, which the authorities continue to deny. Even worse, they are accused of having provided financial support for militant movements in Darfur. This unfounded accusation has to do with an attempt to raise funds for the medical treatment of the young Darfuri Ali Omer, who had been injured during a demonstration in 2013. “Obviously, the allegations imply that the Christians were involved in the civil war,” criticized Delius. “The trial against the four Christians is just one example of how the Sudan’s intelligence agency (NISS) tries to ostracize and criminalize the Christians in order to defame the members of the minority group and to isolate them.”

The two pastors and the European were arrested in December, 2015. Pastor Kodi and the Czech were kept detained in isolation for several months. Pastor Shemaal was released, but then arrested again in May 2016 together with the convert from Darfur.

Header photo: Christliches Medienmagazin pro via Flickr