Christian missionary in Russia loses appeal against anti-evangelism law
Donald Ossewaarde, the Baptist missionary who fought against his conviction for violating Russia's anti-evangelism law, has lost the first court appeal.
The missionary was accused of conducting illegal missionary activity for holding Bible study sessions at his house in August. Authorities also accused him of distributing pamphlets without a permit.
Ossewaarde was found guilty on Aug. 14 and was ordered to pay a fine of 40,000 rubles. He decided to appeal the case, believing that the ruling is an improper application of the law.
On Sept. 30, the appeals court judge upheld the decision and ruled that the minister was guilty. Ossewaarde vowed to continue fighting for his case until the appeal reached the highest court.
"Obviously, this is a disappointment. I was hoping to wrap things up here and return to my family as soon as possible, but the issue is an important one, and duty demands that I press the case as far as I can," Ossewaarde wrote in a statement.
Ossewaarde stated on his website that the woman who filed the complaint against him was not an ordinary citizen but a city official. He noted that she presented photographs of his tracts in bulletin boards as evidence against him. Ossewaarde mentioned that while he indeed put up some posters, he never glued tracts to bulletin boards.
In his statement to the court, Ossewaarde said that he only came to preach in Russia because it became legal. He argued that his ministry did not meet the definition of illegal missionary activities stated in the new anti-evangelism law widely known as the "Yarovaya law."
"Even though Russian is not my native tongue, even I was able to understand that my activity does not meet this definition, so I have not broken any laws. I am exercising the rights guaranteed by the constitution and the laws of the Russian Federation," said Ossewaarde.
Several other people have been arrested over violations of the Yarovaya law. On July 20, the day the law was enacted, authorities raided the Baptist children's camp run by Pastor Aleksei Telius. He was ordered to pay a fine of 5,000 rubles. Last August, a Ghanian Christian leader named Ebenezer Tuah was ordered to pay 50,000 rubles for performing baptisms.
