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| Africa Horn |
| Kenya acquits missionaries |
| 2006-11-10 |
| Dozens of riot police stood guard on Thursday as a Kenyan court acquitted four Christian missionaries, including two from the United States, of incitement for distributing anti-Islamic pamphlets. Inside the heavily secured courthouse, magistrate Hellen Wasilwa found the four innocent of the charges for lack of evidence, and rebuked Muslims who rioted outside the facility at a previous hearing. "The evidence on record cannot sustain the charges brought by the prosecution," she said in her ruling. "In view of that, this court has no option, but to dismiss the charges against the accused and hereby acquit them." Wasilwa then ordered the immediate release of the defendants, US nationals Andrew Saucier and Paul Garcia and Kenyans Michael Mullei and Patrick Mutinda. They had faced three-year jail terms and fines if convicted. The four had been charged with incitement for allegedly distributing pamphlets reading "Prophet Mohammed is not a true prophet" and "Allah had no son" near their church south of Nairobi that infuriated Muslims. But Wasilwa said she was unconvinced that the distribution of the leaflets amounted to incitement, noting that Kenya enshrines freedom of speech and religion in its constitution. "Kenya is a democratic country which guarantees freedom of worship and displaying of the pamphlets, in my view, does not amount to incitement to violence," said Wasilwa. She also took a swipe at militant Muslims who threw stones at court guards and the defendants during the trial last month, prompting police to fire live rounds and teargas into the air and forcing a delay in the case. Wasilwa said there were numerous Islamic books sold in Kenyan bookshops that repudiate Christianity, but she was not aware of any cases of Christians attacking Muslims because of them. "I have never heard where a Christian has ever attacked a Muslim, yet there are many Islamic books that (contain) remarks such as 'Jesus is not a son of God, but a prophet'," she said. There was no immediate reaction from the Muslim community. The pastors were arrested in mid October after the leaflets prompted infuriated Muslims to demonstrate in October outside the Calvary Baptist Church where the four work in Ngong, about 32km from Nairobi. Kenya has a vocal Muslim minority, which in February rallied against the publication in western media of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and demonstrated more recently against alleged police harassment. |
| Posted by:ryuge |