\n\tOne of the worst nightmares would have to be detention in an overcrowded prison without knowing why or for how long. You might have done nothing wrong, but
\n\tyou are treated like a murderer. You know yourself to be innocent, but someone made a mistake. Who? Why?\n<\/p>\n
\n\tNow imagine that the country in which you have been arrested has a less than impartial judicial system. In the past, judges have often been influenced by
\n\tthe wishes of politicians. To make your nightmare worse, the prison is seriously overcrowded. A prison that has a normal capacity of 600 prisoners, instead
\n\thouses more than 1,800.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe first night you sleep in a cell with 80 men. The food is inedible, the unsanitary environment is almost beyond description. As a result, the prison is
\n\treferred to as \u201cthe mourner.\u201d In the past four months15 people have died just because of the poor living conditions.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tYou might think that this scenario is just the stuff of a bad dream; that reality might be different and a little more amenable.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tUnfortunately for Pastor Antonio Monteiro and his fellow Seventh-day Adventist church member Mr. Bruno Amah, this nightmare is a reality. They have been in
\n\tsuch a prison in Lom\u00e9, Togo, under such conditions, since March 15, 2012.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat happened to them? What kind of event turned their lives, the lives of their loved ones, and the life of their community upside down?\n<\/p>\n
\n\tA year or more ago, in the region of Agouenyive in Togo, a number of young women disappeared. We don\u2019t know how many\u2014maybe 18 or 20. Rumors spread about
\n\ttheir fate, and people became very concerned and afraid for their own security. They asked, \u201cWhat are the police doing to protect our daughters? Why hasn\u2019t
\n\tanyone been arrested?\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\tRumors were amplified to include stories about human blood trafficking and secret ceremonies performed by cults with the participation of high-ranking
\n\tofficials. There were rumors and more rumors. In a country in which the leadership faces strong opposition and in which election results always raise
\n\tquestions, rumors may bring political troubles and demonstrations.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tI can imagine the many questions that were asked. \u201cWhat is going on?\u201d \u201cWhy have the criminals not been arrested?\u201d Ultimatums may have been given to those
\n\tin charge of public security. Then three women\u2019s bodies were discovered. Photos were published, but there was no forensic investigation.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe police needed to show that they were effective. They arrested a former prisoner, Simliya Kpatcha. During his stay in prison Simliya had studied the
\n\tBible with an Adventist pastor and been baptized. When he was released from the prison, he visited several people who might help him find a job or get some
\n\tmoney. He went to the Adventist union headquarters in Lom\u00e9 and was received by Pastor Monteiro. The pastor is a missionary from Cape Verde and has been
\n\tworking in Togo for several years. He has served the church as department director in the territories of the Sahel Union Mission, part of the West-Central
\n\tAfrica Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tOn the day Simliya Kpatcha visited the union office, Pastor Monteiro was not traveling, so he was the one who tried to see how they could help him. Bruno
\n\tAmah, a church member and director of the State Company of Mobile, also tried to help.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tLater on, Simliya Kpatcha was arrested again. He said he was involved in the crimes against the women. He said his role was to lure young women who sold
\n\tgoods on the street into a certain field. There other people strangled them and took their blood. According to Monteiro\u2019s lawyer, Kpatcha was then forced
\n\tby the police to give names of the murderers and his accomplices.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tExperts in charge of this case have confirmed the psychological instability of the accuser. They also believe, according to Pastor Guy Roger, the Sahel
\n\tUnion President, that the story Kpatcha told is the product of his imagination. He has a troubled history, and his report contains contradictions.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tBut the way the authorities proceeded was very surprising. The police presented the accuser to the media. When he told his story, he accused Monteiro and \n\tOn March 16, the police orchestrated a raid, with the presence of the media, on Monteiro\u2019s house and on his office at the church headquarters. They also \n\tAdventists have been in Togo for many decades. Portraying some religious minorities as blood drinkers is not new there and has happened elsewhere. However, \n\tThey are still in prison. No proof has been given of their guilt, and no further investigation has been done. It seems that everyone believes they are not \n\tThose readers of Liberty<\/em> who are accustomed to court cases may be confused by my description of this case. To understand it ourselves, we needed \n\tMy first visit inside the prison was a real shock. It is very overcrowded, and there is no hygiene. Prisoners frequently die of illness. But, contrary to \n\tI went with a group of Adventists and a pastor who regularly visits the prison to give Bible studies and preach. In the courtyard the Christians have their \n\tMonteiro said to me that he preaches the gospel and gives Bible studies. As is the case with all of the prisoners, he is concerned about becoming sick. He \n\tThe arrest of Pastor Monteiro and Bruno Amah has been very traumatic for the small Adventist community in Togo. Even if the authorities say that they see \n\tPastor Guy Roger gave a press conference at which he declared that the Adventist Church has never been involved in any secret ceremonies that might use and \n\tBut in spite of that public cloud, during the first seven months we all hoped that a decision would be made and the case dismissed. When we arrived in Lom\u00e9 \n\tWe have met with the appropriate ambassadors, and contacted the office of the president of the country. We hoped that a visit of the Adventist world church \n\tI have been asked to lead a working group on this case. We will alert the whole world if necessary. But after hoping for so long that justice might be \n\tI have to confess that visiting Monteiro and Amah in the prison of Lom\u00e9 opened my eyes to a sad reality. The lives of honest people and their families can \n\tIn how many countries around the world is justice ignored? In how many countries do authorities abuse their power and deny justice? How many innocents are One of the worst nightmares would have to be detention in an overcrowded prison without knowing why or for how long. You might have done nothing wrong, but you are treated like a murderer. You know yourself to be innocent, but someone made a mistake. Who? Why? Now imagine that the country in which you<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[197],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-6207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-march-april-2013","tag-march-april-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tAmah. Pastor Monteiro was described as the mastermind of this human blood trafficking. In fact, one could say the police organized a press conference to
\n\tvalidate the testimony of a multirecidivist. They gave no chance for the accused to defend themselves in the presence of the media. Pastor Guy Roger
\n\tdescribed this presentation as mise en sc\u00e8ne surr\u00e9aliste<\/em>, or surreal staging.\n<\/p>\n
\n\twent to Bruno Amah\u2019s church. The raid was on the TV news and it made the headlines of the main newspapers. According to Pastor Guy Roger, it was a media
\n\tlynching. Adventists in Lom\u00e9 did not understand why the police were trying to find human blood in their church.\n<\/p>\nThe Blood Prejudice<\/h2>\n
\n\tthe church is known for its good works and consistent Christian witness. Unsurprisingly, police did not find any blood or any evidence of the culpability
\n\tof Monteiro or Amah. However, the accused were treated like criminals and spent 14 days naked in the Anti-Gang Station before being transferred to the
\n\tcivil prison in Lom\u00e9.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tguilty, but only the political powers can make a decision. One of the major concerns of their lawyers is that sending them to the court would mean that
\n\tthey could stay in detention for years without being judged. This is a way used to keep people in prison. The question most people ask is: Why are the
\n\tauthorities refusing a fair investigation? What does this supposed traffic of human blood hide?\n<\/p>\nVisits to the Prison<\/h2>\n
\n\tto go to Togo and spend time getting information and meeting lawyers and officials. With Attorney Todd McFarland I spent seven days in Lom\u00e9. Pastor Guy
\n\tRoger, who has fought from the beginning to obtain justice for his employee, received us.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tthe prisons in the United States or Europe, there is a kind of freedom inside the prison. The prisoners are in charge.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tspace and the Muslims have theirs. There is no religious war in that courtyard. When I entered, the Pentecostals were having their service. The voice of
\n\tthe preacher, and the \u201camens\u201d and \u201calleluias,\u201d were strong enough to open all the gates. I did not feel any hostility from the prisoners. When Monteiro and
\n\tAmah came to join us, I saw that the prisoners had respect for them.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tknows that it could be fatal. I have read that the prison has a capacity of 600 but that there are 1,800\u20132,000, and 60 percent of them have not been
\n\tcharged. Half of them don\u2019t know why they are there. Those who have no lawyers and no one to plead their case may spend years there, totally forgotten and
\n\tlost in the system.\n<\/p>\nWhat Can We Do?<\/h2>\n
\n\tno link between the church and this case, their initial actions proved the contrary. For a few days the church was targeted by the media and the police.
\n\tIts leaders who went to the police station to ask for information were unable to leave the building for several hours, and their cars were blocked.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tinvolve the drinking of human blood. He vigorously denounced the way the church was treated by the police and the media.\n<\/p>\n
\n\ton Thursday, September 6, we were told that \u201cthe prisoners will be free next Monday.\u201d Then it was \u201cnext Friday.\u201d Nothing happened.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tpresident to Lom\u00e9 would help. He met with the two prisoners, but no officials were willing to receive him. When he came back to the church world
\n\theadquarters in Washington, D.C., Adventist Church president Ted Wilson launched December 1 as a day of prayer and fasting for all Adventist churches
\n\taround the world. Millions of people learned about the case and prayed for the two prisoners.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tdone, now the time has come to show our solidarity and speak to a wider audience. Letters will of course be sent to the president of Togo and to the
\n\tprisoners. They will become the symbols of a dysfunctional justice system and of victims of prejudice all around the globe.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tbe destroyed in a few days by those who should protect them. Prejudice and ignorance can so easily be invoked to raise public anger.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tin prison for years? And the question I cannot escape: What am I doing for them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"