Entries in Thomas Kang (3)

Thursday
Apr042013

Pastor Thomas Tae Kang was released

After six months of imprisonment, Pastor Thomas Tae Kang was released by a judge

On April 2nd the Zaoksky Regional Court of the Tula Oblast heard the case of US citizen Thomas Tae Kang in an open hearing. The pastor, accused of bribing an official, was released from custody and sentenced to pay a fine.

As reported earlier by Russian Ministries, the Presbyterian pastor, missionary, and former military chaplain was arrested on September 28, 2012 while in the process of building House of Joy, for use as a church building and as a center for needy families. The cause of arrest was him giving three thousand Russian rubles (about $95) to a police officer for the alleged purpose of bribing him to not be so harsh in regards to an emigrant laborer from Uzbekistan who was doing construction work on his house.

Pastors from the Moscow and Tula Oblasts came to the hearing to support their colleague. Also many Christians all over Russia and the world were praying for Pastor Kang leading up to and on the day of the hearing.

In the words of the senior partner of the Slavic Law Center, Anatoly Pchelintsev, who was representing Pastor Kang during the initial investigation, this was the best possible outcome in the situation. “In my opinion,” Pchelintsev said, “my client was, to put it simply, set up. This case shows once again that you can’t give even the slightest cause for provocation.”

Pchelintsev also said that the police of the south-western district of Moscow are investigating the disappearance of 28,000 Russian rubles ($885) and gold jewelry from Pastor Kang’s apartment during a “search” conducted by Tula police.

On the photo Anatoliy Pchelintsev and Pastor Thomas Kang
Monday
Apr012013

Thomas Tae Kang: U.S. Citizen imprisoned in Russia

Tomorrow, on April 2 a hearing will be held on the case of Pastor Kang. He and his lawyer decided to plead guilty in order to soften the punishment for the crime.

In the circumstances, Mr. Kang sees no possibility to defend the truth, tired of the 7-month stay in jail and wants only one thing – to meet with his family as soon as possible.

We believe that the case was fabricated by the local authorities, that the pastor gave a “bribe” under pressure from the police officer and had been abetted by his assistant. The positive outcome of the case for authorities of the City of Tula certainly inspires them, and not only them, to do so in the future with the missionaries belonging to unwanted religious minorities. 

The following is the statement by the Russian Guild of Experts on Religion and Law:

Increasingly in Russia, prosecutorial agencies take action against the faithful, against Christian missionaries, and these actions are not, formally, prosecution initiated on the basis of their religious beliefs. Essentially, representatives of various faiths are provoked, and said provocations result in criminal, or other action.

In this regard, the Guild of Experts on Religion and Law calls on the Investigative Committee of Russia, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, and the general public to take note of the case of the Protestant pastor Thomas Kang, a U.S. citizen, who, as a result of obvious provocation, is under investigation for bribery.

Actions such as this, which are clearly targeted at believers who are persona non grata, as well as at active preachers who are unable to defend themselves, will inflict damage on Russia's international reputation as a Christian country. What transpired with Pastor Kang is a case of blatant persecution on the basis of religion, aided by criminal provocation. There is no doubt that the actions against Pastor Kang were taken with the aim of stamping out the Christian community which he created, and developing a means of expelling him from Russia.

We hope that, both within Russia and abroad, the public will respond vigorously to such blatant violations of the rights of believers to religious freedom and freedom to practice their beliefs, which are more and more frequently being threatened under various pretexts on the territory of Russia.

Wednesday
Feb272013

American Pastor Detained in Russia

A Protestant pastor and U.S. citizen has been held for months at detention center in Russia. Thomas Tae Kang, a Presbyterian Church pastor, Korean by birth, U.S. citizen, former military chaplain, and now military pensioner, has been held for more than four months in custody on an attempted bribery charge: the bribe, a $30 USD donation he provided in conjunction to a fine he lawfully paid.  But a cursory look into the facts surrounding his case show that he was targeted because he provided a place for various Christian ministries to worship.
T. Kang arrived in Russia more than ten years ago, and he has remained here with his family. He had literally fallen in love with Russia, its culture and the Russian people. After obtaining his residence permit, he bought an apartment in Moscow and began to build a house in Zaoksky District, Tula Region, a process that took more than nine years to complete. Upon completion, the house was large and beautiful. T. Kang called it his "House of Joy", and decided he would minister to parents and children from low-income families and the children of soldiers by allowing them to vacation for free at the House of Joy. T. Kang felt this ministry is how he could best serve the Russian people. Even before its official opening, T. Kang placed the humanitarian vacation house at the disposal of Christians in Tula Region for celebrations and prayer services.

The official opening of the House of Joy was scheduled for September 29, 2012. Clergy from all over Russia, as well as from South Korea and the United States, were invited to the opening. A former Defense Minister of South Korea, and now pastor of one of the largest Presbyterian churches in Seoul, was among the invitees who arrived. A total of around 120 guests came.
  
But on September 28, 2012, the eve of the grand opening of the House of Joy, the Office of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) of the Zaoksky District summoned T. Kang by telephone. Officials of FMS informed T. Kang that one of the three builders of the house, an immigrant from Uzbekistan, had a work permit that had expired several days before and had since been arrested.

Like a law-abiding citizen, T. Kang rushed to the FMS Office where the details of the Russian immigration laws were described to him in the darkest terms, and he was threatened with criminal charges entailing a sentence of two months to two years, a sentence which did not, however, correspond with Russian law. An FMS employee sent T. Kang to the chief of police in the building next door after giving T. Kang a copy of the administrative offense report, which listed a fine of two thousand rubles and bank account information for the payment of the fine. In answer to T. Kang’s question, "Why do I have to go there?" the employee told the presbyter that it was "necessary" and that "they are waiting for you."

A police officer on duty accompanied T. Kang and his assistant Ekaterina F. to the office of the Deputy Chief Captain S., where the conversation revolved first around the Uzbek and then turned to the possibility that T. Kang was himself criminally liable. Assuming by this allegation the officer was trying to extort a bribe, T. Kang told Ekaterina "Let's go" and left the office. In the corridor he gave Ekaterina two thousand rubles and asked her to pay the fine, because he honestly believed that the fine must be paid on the spot, and then he went out to his car.
  
Captain S. would not, however, take the money from Ekaterina, stating that T. Kang was ignoring him and did not want to talk to him, and he demanded that T. Kang be brought back to the office. Ekaterina came down from the second floor to the street and called T. Kang back to the office. However, he did not want to return, stating that he had nothing more to do there and he was in a rush because there were groceries in the car that could spoil and he had to prepare to meet his guests. Ekaterina reiterated that the officer was insistent that he return. Taking the money back from Ekaterina, T. Kang entered the office where this conversation "about nothing" went into the second round. To put it plainly, he was stonewalled for a total of more than thirty minutes.

Growing tired of meaningless conversation and the hints of criminal liability, the foreigner gave the policeman two thousand rubles (roughly $66USD) to satisfy the fine and another thousand rubles (roughly $33USD) as "an open giving of thanks" (these were his literal words) for the economic needs of the police, in essence a donation to the police. Captain S. glanced at the money and shouted "bribe!" Immediately, the police officers who were standing at the ready behind door ran in and detained the T. Kang.  On September 29, 2011, the morning after the initial detention, T. Kang was transferred to Detention center No. 1 of Tula, where to this day, more than five months later, he is being held until his investigation is concluded.
Author: 

Anatoly Pchelintsev, lawyer,
Co-Chairmain of the Slavic Center for Law and Justice