Saudi Arabia Kidnaps Christians Off Its Streets
Indian Christian Abducted by Saudi Religious Police for Possession of A Bible Continues To Be Held Incommunicado in Saudi Arabia
(PRWEB) April 25, 2005 -- The Washington-DC based human rights group,
International Christian Concern (ICC), www.persecution.org, has just become informed about the
abduction of a Christian off of the streets of Saudi Arabia.
Samkutty
Varghese is an Indian national who traveled to Saudi Arabia on Jan 26th 2005. He
was staying in Riyadh until his abduction off the streets by the Muttawa (Saudi
religious police). It is being reported to ICC that the Muttawa approached Sam
as he was waiting for friends near the city center of Riyadh on the evening of
March 9th at approximately 7:00 pm.
Mr. Varghese was awaiting a visa
extension from the Saudi government.
The Muttawa asked Varghese for his
passport. However, he was only able to give them a copy because the Saudi
government had taken his passport since he was requesting a visa extension. They
then asked him what was in his bag. In his bag, he had one Bible in the Hindi
language. The Muttawa then took Mr. Varghese away and there has been no
communication from him since. Friends of Mr. Varghese went to the local police
station but the police would not disclose any information in his regard.
Samkutty Varghese has a wife and small children waiting on word of his
whereabouts back in India.
This is just the latest outrageous example of
Saudi Arabia’s complete disregard of human rights and their zero-tolerance
policy towards people of other religions at home, while they spend billions of
dollars every year building mosques and promoting Islam around the Western
world. The Saudi’s have made a lot of noise recently about their efforts to
clean up the religious radicals and the Muttawa but it seems it is business as
usual.
ICC requests concerned individuals to contact a Saudi embassy to
politely express their concern as well as to request the release of
Samkutty Varghese
Address: Kalakunnel Puthenveedu Kurampakkara P.O.
Pathanapuram, Kerala India
Passport No. E 8421022.
For A List of
Saudi Embassies In Different Countries, please go to
http://www.persecution.org/newsite/countryinfodetail.php?countrycode=23
ICC
is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help
persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC delivers humanitarian aid, trains and
supports persecuted pastors, raises awareness in the US regarding the problem of
persecution, and is an advocate for the persecuted on Capitol Hill and the State
Department. For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at
800-422-5441.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/4/prweb232057.htm