Nepal: Pastor must serve one year in prison for alleged proselytization, Supreme Court says

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Supreme Court of Nepal has told a Christian pastor he must serve a one-year prison term he was sentenced to earlier this year for alleged proselytization against Hindus, Christian Today reports.

The Open Doors international Christian advocacy group reports that the level of persecution against Christians in Nepal is “very high,” with most of it coming from Hindu nationalists.

On July 13, 2023, a lower court found that Pastor Keshab Raj Acharya of Abundant Harvest Church in Pokhara was guilty of violating Nepal’s proselytization law, Christian Today reports. The conviction was secured despite there being no witnesses to the alleged crime. In addition to the jail term, Acharya was fined 10,000 Nepali rupees (75 USD).

Acharya has now lost his appeal to the Supreme Court, which rejected the matter out of hand and without considering documentation, MSN reports. “Supreme Court at the very first hearing rejected our request without even seeing the documents,” Acharya told Christian Today.

“They said that the High Court’s decision would be final, and they would not discuss the case further,” Acharya added. “They simply rejected our plea without even considering it. It took them 2 to 3 minutes to reject the case.”

In her own statement to Christian Today, Acharya’s wife Junu said: “We were very hopeful from the Supreme Court, and the judgment has come as a shock to us. We still are not able to understand the reason for such a judgment. He had not forced anybody to change their religion.”

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