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Filipino pastor's departure from UAE stalled
Dubai prosecutor appeals cancelled deportation order
by Barbara G. Baker
Compass (03.07.2003)/ HRWF Int. (04.07.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net -- Despite a suspended jail sentence and cancelled deportation order from court authorities of the United Arab Emirates, a Filipino pastor and his family are still waiting for court permission to leave the Arab Gulf state.
Rev. Fernando P. Alconga, 54, told Compass today that he expects a final ruling on July 5 from the Dubai Supreme Court that would end eight months of judicial tangles surrounding his criminal case over illegal Christian missionary activity.
We are praying that the Dubai Supreme Court will be decisive on Saturday to uphold the Court of Appeals cancellation of my deportation, so that we will be cleared to leave the UAE immediately, Alconga said.
He and his family have confirmed flight reservations to leave for Manila on July 9, pending Supreme Court approval and the return of his passport, he said. An ordained Conservative Baptist minister, Alconga had planned to return to the Philippines last January to pastor a congregation in Manila.
Arrested in November 2002, Alconga was jailed for 36 days and then put on trial for preaching other than the Islamic religion by giving a Bible and Christian literature to an Arab Muslim at a shopping mall in Dubai.
Although Alconga was found guilty of abusing Islam and conducting Christian missionary activity in the April 27 verdict, the presiding criminal court judge suspended his one-year prison sentence.
Subsequently, Alcongas lawyer Hamad M. Kadfoor al-Hemairi filed a petition before the Dubai Court of Appeals requesting the cancellation of the pastors deportation order. The appeal, which was approved on May 25, enabled Alcongas 13-year-old son to remain in the UAE to complete his school exams, which concluded on June 11.
Under Emirati law, it also cleared Alcongas name of criminal charges so that he would be free to visit the UAE again.
But on June 8, when Alcongas passport was to have been released by the court, his lawyer learned that the Dubai Prosecutor General had filed an objection against the appellate courts decision to drop the pastors deportation order.
Although a hearing was set for the appeal before the Supreme Court on June 28, it was postponed until July 5. As a result, Alcongas son missed the opening of his next school term in the Philippines, where schools started on June 16.
In terms of the pending Supreme Court ruling, Deportation is the only issue, Alconga said.
There has been no legal debate raised against the leniency extended by the Criminal Court of First Instance in suspending his one-year jail sentence. Alconga and his family have lived in the UAE since 1994.
Under the UAEs penal code, non-Muslim missionary activities and possession of materials that oppose Islams fundamental principles are strictly prohibited. However, the relatively tolerant federation of seven sheikdoms allows its resident expatriates, who compose 80 percent of the population, to establish a number of Christian churches which meet openly for worship on government-allotted land.
A pastor sentenced for proselytism
Middle East Concern (29.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (30.04.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A Filipino pastor has been found guilty of "Abusing Islam and Christian Missionary Activity" in Dubai, UAE. He received a suspended sentence of a year in prison, deportation and confiscation of seized materials except the Bible. The probabation period is three years.
This judgement follows a series of court appearances. The only witness against him, an Egyptian man to whom Rev. Alconga had given Christian literature in Arabic in November 2002, testified that he had willingly accepted the materials knowing what they were.
The court asked a panel of Islamic experts to evaluate the materials.Their judgement was that, according to Islam, the materials were acceptable for private use but not for distributing to non-Christians.
Rev. Fernando Alconga is an ordained minister of the Conservative Baptist Association of the Philippines and is a pastor of the Redeemer and King Filipino Church of Ras Al Khaimah, Dubai under the sponsorship of the Evangelical Church in the United Arab Emirates (CEC).
The case began on 11th November 2002 when he handed a package of Christian materials in Arabic to an Egyptian man in a mall car park. The next day he was approached by two men who asked him for Christian materials in Arabic.Rev Alconga said that he had materials in other languages, Chinese, Russian, French and Indonesian, but not Arabic. He explained that he could get them materials if they wished to have some. At this point the men revealed that they were plain clothed policemen and arrested him. The Egyptian man had filed a complaint against him.
He was held in custody for a month before being released on bail on 17th December. Formal charges were presented on 24th December. The preliminary court hearing was held on the 19th January 2003, followed by short hearings approximately every two weeks on Sundays.
Whilst in detention Rev. Alconga was treated with respect but initially his requests for legal council and a translator were denied and he felt pressured to sign documents in Arabic, a language that he does not understand. Representations by his sponsor, CEC, secured him a lawyer to represent during the series of court hearings.
The Christian community in Dubai is grateful that this case is over and that Rev. Alconga is free to go about his regular activities.
Rev Alconga is married to Naomi and they have a son who completes his schooling in June. He plans to leave Dubai this summer to become minister of a church in the Philippines.
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