15 Christians Are Expelled from the Country and One Remains in Detention
ISTANBUL, FEB 17 (ZENIT).- According to the Compass agency, Saudi Arabia released 4 Filipino Christians in Riyadh Tuesday, 40 days after their arrest by the country's strict Islamic police for engaging in Christian worship in a private home.
Art Abreu, Eminesio Rabea, Vic Mira Velez and Rupino Sulit were all discharged early yesterday afternoon from the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) detention center, where they were held since January 7.
According to a representative of the Philippines Embassy in Riyadh, one other Filipino detained in the incident still remains under guard at the MOI center. Although his release was ordered more than three weeks ago, the prisoner is still waiting for the guarantee documents required by his employer.
Sources in the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila identified the one remaining Christian under arrest as Diosdado Cadoy, a Ministry of Municipalities employee in Riyadh. "The embassy is actively monitoring his situation," a spokesman for the Riyadh embassy told Compass yesterday; "we expect his release soon."
On January 7, a total of 15 Christians, including 3 women and 5 young children, were arrested in a raid conducted by Riyadh's "muttawa" (religious police) at the Abreu home, where some 100 Filipinos were worshipping together.
Eleven of the detained Christians were cleared for release within two weeks, allowing all but Cadoy to return to their homes. But MOI authorities kept the 4 alleged leaders of the group incommunicado until yesterday, even refusing diplomatic access to their embassy representatives.
Manila sources said Velez and Sulit were already slated for deportation to the Philippines next Sunday, February 20. Meanwhile, Compass confirmed directly from Riyadh that some of the other Christians detained on January 7 flew back to Manila today, beginning the expulsion of all 15.
After his release, Abreu told relatives in Manila that he had requested a delay in his family's deportation until the children's school term concludes. Today the Abreu family was given a deadline of March 26 to leave the country.
Saudi Arabia's interpretation of Islamic Law does not permit non-Muslim worship within the country's borders, even by foreign nationals.
Although senior government officials have pledged verbally since 1997 that foreign Christians would be allowed to worship in the privacy of their homes, at least 31 known arrests have been made for alleged illegal Christian activities during the past 12 months.
Saudi authorities jailed 3 foreign Christians in separate incidents during 1999 on the basis of "evidence" of their involvement in illegal Christian activities. The arrests were ordered after officials discovered a snapshot of one presumably "preaching" behind a pulpit, a personal Bible in the possession of another, and the name of a third listed on a computer disk confiscated in a church raid in another city.
The 3 Christians were held as common criminals in the jail, with shaven heads and without consular access throughout their detention. The arrests, which occurred in May, July and December in Riyadh and Dammam, ranged from 6 weeks to 4 months. All were subsequently fired from their jobs and deported back to their home countries without formal court hearings.
In a major crackdown last October, the Saudi muttawa raided two foreign Christian fellowships in Riyadh, requiring all 267 attendees to surrender the passport details. Initially, 40 members of the congregation were detained, with 13 of the suspected leaders kept under arrest for 3 weeks before being released for deportation by their employers.
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