Cuban Pastors Face Prison For Mentioning God
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
HAVANA (Worthy News) – Two Assemblies of God pastors in Cuba, Luis Guillermo Borjas and his wife, Roxana Rojas, faced a tense Sunday after their reported detention for mentioning God at their son’s military trial.
Prosecutors of the Communist-run island nation want them to serve an eight-year prison term for “disrespect” and “disobeying” the authorities, according to Christians familiar with the case.
The troubles began May 19 May when the couple was detained after referencing God before a military tribunal where their son was being tried for attempting to evade obligatory military service, Christians told Worthy News.
Their trial is scheduled for 9 June, according to Christians familiar with the case.
“The couple were summoned to the military tribunal after their son, Kevin Laureido Rojas, ran away from a military facility after having been taken by force to perform the military service that is required of all Cuban males at the age of 18, despite having a medical exemption,” confirmed Christian advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
At the tribunal, the couple presented documents from a medical commission that found that their son’s “psychiatric condition makes him unable to perform military service,” Worthy News learned.
CSW noted that when the “military prosecutor accused the couple of lying and presenting false evidence, Pastor Borjas protested, stating that the officials in the court would be accountable to ‘God’s justice’.”
GOD’S NAME ‘ILLEGAL’
The prosecutor then “ordered the couple to be detained and charged, claiming that it is illegal to mention God or God’s justice in a military tribunal,” CSW added in a statement to Worthy News.
Pastor Borjas reportedly remains detained in a cell at the police station while his wife, Pastor Rojas, who has a heart condition, was taken to the hospital unconscious.
CSW said it had received reports that while in the hospital, “Pastor Rojas has been harassed by a young man in civilian clothes who falsely claimed to be a nurse. “
CSW’s Director of Advocacy, Anna Lee Stangl, told Worthy News that CSW had urged the Cuban authorities “to immediately drop the criminal charges against Pastors Luis Guillermo Borjas and Roxana Rojas and to release Pastor Borjas from detention.”
She said it is “unacceptable that a simple reference to their religious beliefs in response to the military’s unjust treatment of their family should be criminalized, adding that it was “even more unconscionable that the government would seek an eight-year prison sentence.”
CSW said it “urges the international community to press the Cuban government to uphold the often intersecting rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief for all.”
BROADER CRACKDOWN REPORTED
The detention is part of a broader crackdown on Christians deemed dangerous to the Communist leadership, activists say. “Since 1959, Cuba has been ruled by the Communist Party, which tries to control the church,” noted advocacy group Open Doors.
“The government reacts harshly to anyone who opposes it. Church leaders and Christian activists who criticize the regime can face interrogation, arrest, and imprisonment,” the group added.
“They also suffer smear campaigns, travel restrictions, and harassment (which can include physical violence and damage to church buildings),” Open Doors stressed in an assessment.
Open Doors ranks Cuba 26th on its annual World Watch List of 50 countries where it says Christians face most persecution for their faith in Christ.
The reported crackdown apparently continues under Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel, who became president in April 2018 in a handover ending six decades of rule by the Castro family.
Diaz-Canel has promised to maintain the island’s one-party system on the Caribbean island of nearly 11 million people.
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