Source: Morning Star News, August 8, 2019<\/p>\n
A Christian from South Korea arrested in Nepal on charges of \u201cattempting to convert\u201d was released on bail on [August 7], sources said.<\/p>\n
Cho Yusang, a 73-year-old evangelical Christian, posted bail of 150,000 Nepalese rupees (US$1,330) after being arrested on July 23. His health deteriorated after he was incarcerated, and he had been hospitalized, said Tanka Subedi, chair of the Religious Liberty Forum Nepal (RLFN).<\/p>\n
The charge of \u201cattempting to convert\u201d under the Nepal Penal Code of 2017 calls for as much five years in jail and\/or a fine of up to 50,000 Nepalese Rupees (US$445), according to Subedi.<\/p>\n
B.P. Khanal, national coordinator of Nepal for the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief, told Morning Star News that after arresting Cho from his lakeside lodging, police raided his room and confiscated some Bibles and Christian literature.<\/p>\n
Khanal, who is responsible for inter-faith relations for the Nepal Christian Society, said possession of a Bible and Christian literature is not evidence of a crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case the law is discriminatory, because it is not an offense to have Bibles in your room,\u201d Khanal told Morning Star News. \u201cThe recovery of some Bibles and Christian literature from Yusang\u2019s personal belongings is projeced as an offense and as a crime Yusang committed. Anybody can have a Bible\u2014it is not a drug or an explosive. Carrying a Bible should not be a criminal offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00bb Full story<\/a> includes more details and context. Khanal asks foreigners visiting Nepal to refrain from actions that will land them in legal trouble, but commit themselves to equip the local Church to share the gospel.<\/p>\n \u00bb For less-sympathetic local coverage of this event, see Three Foreign Tourists Arrested for Proselytizing<\/a> (myRepublica). The two other foreigners mentioned are Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses from Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Morning Star News, August 8, 2019 A Christian from South Korea arrested in Nepal on charges of \u201cattempting to convert\u201d was released on bail on [August 7], sources said. Cho Yusang, a 73-year-old evangelical Christian, posted bail of 150,000 Nepalese rupees (US$1,330) after being arrested on July 23. His health deteriorated after he was … Continue reading NEPAL: Foreign Christians Arrested on Charges of Attempting to Convert People<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8745,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8739\/revisions\/8745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}