Pastor Keshab Acharya | COURTESY PHOTO.
A pastor was imprisoned for over three months in Nepal after a video appeared on social media of him rebuking the coronavirus as he preached and prayed at his church.
According to the Christian Post, Pastor Keshab Raj Acharya was first arrested on March 23 on charges of spreading what government authorities perceived as “false information” for saying prayers can heal COVID-19.
The news source continues saying the pastor was taken into custody from his home in Pokhara, Gandaki Pradesh Province.
Though he was released on April 8, Uganda Christian News understands that he was rearrested moments later on charges of “outraging religious feelings” and “proselytizing.”
After more than three months in prison, he was released on July 3 after paying bail equal to about $2,500, Morning Star News reports.
Speaking to media reporters, Pastor Acharya said he believes government officials and police worked together against him. “They were laying a thorough plan to make sure I would stay in the jail for a longer period,” he said.
“It was very difficult for me,” he added. “I would think of my little children and my wife, and I would cry out to the Lord in prayer. I would look up at Him in hope that if it is in His will that I should be put through this, He would get me out of this.”
A Statement From Police
The Nepal police in a statement seen by the Christian Post stated that Kaski police officers arrested the preacher for misleading the public by posting false information on social media about the novel coronavirus. Police cited a YouTube video showing him calling the coronavirus an evil spirit and rebuking it in the name of Christ.
According to the Himalayan Times, the pastor allegedly said in the video that COVID-19 could do nothing to followers of Jesus Christ and told them the virus “could not even touch the followers of Jesus.”
What Christian authorities say
Church leaders in the predominantly Hindu Himalayan country told the outlet that the charges against the father of two young children violate a freedom of religion agreement to which Nepal is a signatory. Nepal has been a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council since 2018 and is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Senior Counsel Govinda Bandi, who is defending the pastor, told CSW that his repeated arrest was a “very worrying sign of the trajectory of religious freedom in this country.”
Persecution watchdog Open Doors USA ranks Nepal 32nd on its World Watch List of 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Persecution against Christians worsened in 2017 when the Nepalese parliament passed legislation banning religious conversions and “the hurting of religious feelings.”
In 2016, seven Christians were arrested in the Dolakha district for handing out Bibles.
News Agencies contributed to this report.
