26 April 2019 David Adams

Police in Nepal arrested four Christians, including a woman from the US, at a hotel early Tuesday morning on charges of "conversion by allurement", Morning Star News reports.

The US-based news organisation, which covers the persecuted church, reports that police detained the four at their hotel in Ghorahi, about 420 kilometres west of the capital Kathmandu, at 7am. They included Pastor Dilli Ram Poudel, 49, general secretary of the Nepal Christian Society, Indian citizen Gaurav Shrivastava, 34, Nepali woman Kunsang Tamang, and Oleana Cinquanta, a 49-year-old US citizen.

Before their arrests: (from left) Pastor Dilli Ram Poudel, Kunsang Tamang, Gaurav Shrivastava and Oleana Cinquanta share a meal in Nepal. PICTURE: Morning Star News.

Media outlets in Nepal reported the Christians were detained for alleged involvement in preaching Christianity and for conversions through allurement in Ghorahi, Morning Star News said. The outlets alleged they were distributing Bibles and money.

Cinquanta told Morning Star News she was held for more than 10 hours without her medication before being deported to the US.

“The allegations are completely false,” she texted while being escorted by plainclothes police to the airport to take a flight back to the US. “We were not distributing any Bibles or dollars.” She also told the news organisation police had not allowed her to access medication she required following her arrest.

Police searched the Christians’ hotel rooms and confiscated Bibles as “evidence” of carrying out fraudulent conversions, Christian leader Pratik Bista told Morning Star News. Officers also confiscated US dollars from Cinquanta’s room as evidence of “allurement to convert", he said.

“How is it a crime for a Christian to carry his Bible, and how is it a crime for an American to carry dollars when visiting a foreign country?” Bista asked in comments to Morning Star News. “If a Hindu carrying his holy scriptures is not a crime, then how does it apply on Christians? How could they come to the hotel and detain the Christians without a First Information Report?”

Having arrived on Easter Sunday, Cinquanta said she was visiting a church program, adding that "no-one was engaging in conversion". Shrivastava had come to the hotel from India as a guest speaker for a Christian conference scheduled for this week which had been organised by Bista. Shrivastava was expected to be deported to India and Poudel to fly to Kathmandu.

Christian leaders in Nepal, who held a rally in response to the arrests on Wednesday, expressed their shock at the detentions and deportations.

“When detained, these Christians were not preaching or roaming on the streets or even distributing anything,” Pastor Sagar Baizu, spokesperson of the Federation of National Christians in Nepal, told Morning Star News. “They were detained from their hotel rooms in early morning hours. It is shocking that they are kept in the police custody since 7:30 in the morning and not being released.”

Bista described the arrests as "pure harassment". “They are portraying us [Christians] as ‘bad.’”

Mervyn Thomas, CEO of UK-based religious freedom advocacy CSW, urged Nepal to "respect the right of all religious minorities to practice their faith or belief through worship, observation, teaching and practice".

"Section 158 of the penal code [which criminalises proselytising and conversion] emboldens both state and non-state actors to harass and prosecute innocent people who are simply exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief," he said. "We call on the police to drop all charges against these Christians and to release them immediately.”

Cinquanta, meanwhile, told Morning Star News that she had been preparing to open a guest house in Nepal, and eventually a coffee/snack shop and a travel agency.

“I sincerely hope this issue gets resolved so I and many more of my friends can come and bless and enjoy this beautiful country,” she said. “The thought of not being able to return makes me unbearably sad to the point of tears. I have made precious friends here who are like my own family. To not be able to see them will break my heart.”

Last November, Australian woman Katie Rachel Graham was deported from Nepal for allegedly trying to convert people to Christianity.