Global Church Crime News 05/28/2023

(May 26) Painter Jailed 2 Months For Stealing Four Bibles, 124 Church Forms | NIGERIA

A 30- year- old painter, Zakaraya Usman, was reported to have been found guilty of stealing from a church in Abuja.

The suspect was reported to have stolen four bibles, 124 church membership forms, and other items on Thursday by a Grade I Area Court that was sitting in Kabusa, Abuja.

According to PUNCH Newspaper, the suspect was afterward sentenced to two months in prison for his crimes.

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(May 25) Pastor Jefwa Kalama Arrested For Defiling Minor In Pastor Ezekiel's Church; Court Frees Him Sh200k | KENYA

A pastor has been arrested and charged for allegedly defiling a 15-year-old girl inside a church in Mombasa.

Robert Jefwa Kalama, 40, a pastor attached to the New Life Prayer Centre and Church which is led by televangelist Ezekiel Odero, dismissed the accusations of defilement when he presented himself before Mombasa senior resident magistrate Rita Orora.

He was further charged with a second case of committing an indecent act with a minor.

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(May 25) Mexican Priest Killed, Archbishop Attacked With Knife | MEXICO

Church observers lack a cogent explanation for the attacks on the clergy, though they point to rising violence in the country

A parish priest was shot dead as he drove on a rural Mexican highway on May 22, marking yet another attack in what has become the most murderous country for Catholic clergy.

Augustinian Father Javier García Villafaña was killed at around 7 p.m. (local time) in the municipality of Huandacareo in Michoacán state to the west of Mexico City. Father García was found dead with gunshot wounds.

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(May 25) Rwanda Genocide Fugitive Fulgence Kayishema, Accused Of Killing 2,000 In Church Massacre, Arrested | SOUTH AFRICA

One of the world's most wanted fugitives was arrested Wednesday in South Africa after 29 years on the run, according to United Nations investigators. Fulgence Kayishema is alleged to have orchestrated the brutal killing of 2,000 women, men and children at a church in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide in the central African nation.

He was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in 2001 and had been on the run, using various aliases and disguises, ever since. The Nyange church attack is seen as one of the most brutal acts during the 100 days of the Rwandan genocide.

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(May 25) Syrian Islamists Arrested For Bomb Plot Against Swedish Church | GERMANY

Authorities in Germany have arrested two brothers, both Syrian nationals, on suspicion of planning to carry out an Islamist terror attack on a packed church in Sweden, a joint press release by state and federal police and the public prosecutor’s office revealed on Tuesday, May 23rd.

In the joint press release by the German federal police, Hamburg state police, and the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office, authorities say that the two brothers, 24-year-old Ahmad K. and 28-year-old Anas K., were arrested for preparing to detonate a homemade explosive device at an unspecified church in Sweden, the Berlin-based newspaper Die Welt reports.

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