Nicaragua: US Missionary Remains Wrongfully Charged With Fraud, Colleagues Still in Prison

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Jon Britton Hancock, an American missionary to Nicaragua with the US-based Mountain Gate ministry remains wrongfully charged by the authoritarian communist Nicaraguan regime of fraud but, as he was able to return home to the United States, will face trial in his absence, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

Also charged are Hancock’s son and daughter-in-law, and they too are at home in the US, ICC said. Eleven Nicaraguan pastors who served with Hancock, however, have been imprisoned in their country on the same charges, and have been denied due process.

The accusations came last year, shortly after the missionary team led eight large Gospel events in Nicaragua, a country currently known for a harsh, corrupt regime that oppresses its people and is increasingly hostile to Christianity.

Alarmed at the case against Hancock and his colleagues, a bipartisan group of 58 members of the U.S. Congress wrote to the Ambassador of Nicaragua, expressing their concern, ICC reports. Moreover, lawmakers introduced Resolution 1019 in February, asserting “United States citizens affiliated with the Mountain Gateway ministry are being targeted for arrest and extradition by the Nicaraguan government.”

For its part the missionary group has vehemently denied the charges, stating: “Mountain Gateway has documentation demonstrating that the Nicaraguan government viewed and approved all funds that entered the country, and the organization operated under the government’s oversight to ensure that all funds were used and managed appropriately.”

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