Christian Minister Claims Cuban Court Convicted Him on Trumped-Up Charge
by Allie Martin
January 8, 2007
(AgapePress) - - An organization that serves the persecuted Church worldwide is highlighting a case involving an evangelical minister in Cuba as proof that radical reform is needed in that communist nation's legal system. Pastor Carlos Lamelas, the former national president of the Church of God in Cuba, was arrested in a police raid on his home on February 20 of last year and held for four months before being released. Upon arresting the Christian leader, the Cuban authorities confiscated some of his personal property, which was not returned after he was let go.
A Cuban court recently acquitted Lamelas of the charge of human trafficking initially lodged against him; however, the court convicted him on charges of falsification of documents. But Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), a ministry to persecuted Christians, says the government never even informed Pastor Lamelas of the falsification of documents charges. Still, as Compass Direct News reports, the court imposed a fine of 1,000 Cuban pesos ($45) for the new charges.
Nettleton believes the Cuban authorities had an ulterior motive in charging the minister with a second, previously unannounced crime -- and also in declaring him guilty. What Lamelas believes, the VOM representative explains, "is that this is kind of a pre-text by the government in order to keep some of the computers and office equipment that they confiscated from him."
After all, if Cuban officials admitted that Lamelas was completely innocent, they would probably have to return the office equipment and computers, Nettleton notes. "By saying he is convicted of this charge, they then have an excuse to hang onto the equipment," the ministry official observes.
For the Christian pastor, who maintains his innocence, this has been a difficult ordeal. He is unhappy with the guilty verdict, even though the sentence is what some might call favorable. Lamelas argues that, had he actually committed the crime falsifying documents, that would make him an accomplice to human trafficking, and he would not have been acquitted of the more serious crime.
"How can it be that I am innocent of the original crime," the evangelical minister demands, "and nevertheless guilty of the one they later invented?' The pastor's outrage is completely understandable to Nettleton.
"How frustrating would it be," the VOM spokesman asks, "to not only find out that you were charged with something that you didn't do, but that you'd already been convicted without even being allowed to answer the charges?" However, he contends, that is the kind of injustice people regularly face in a Communist country like Cuba.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
