The Cititzen | Oct. 7, 2019
IN SUMMARY
Gregg Schoof, a Baptist, has been operating in Rwanda since 2003, mainly through his church and a radio station, Amazing Grace FM, which was shut last year over a sermon that called women “evil” and “prostitutes”.
Kigali. A US missionary was arrested in Rwanda on Monday for illegally meeting journalists, police said, after he called a press conference to criticise the government for shutting down his church and radio station.
Gregg Schoof, a Baptist, has been operating in Rwanda since 2003, mainly through his church and a radio station, Amazing Grace FM, which was shut last year over a sermon that called women “evil” and “prostitutes”.
He was arrested with one of his sons, who was not named, at the start of a press conference at which he planned to read out a statement slamming the government’s “heathen practices”.
“We arrested Mr Schoof and handed him over to the Rwanda Investigative Bureau. He was arrested for holding an illegal meeting with journalists in a public space,” police spokesman John Bosco Kabera told AFP.
“It is illegal to hold meetings in public spaces without authorisation.”
In April last year, Rwanda’s regulatory authority revoked his radio station’s licence, saying he failed to comply with sanctions after a controversial sermon aired in which a presenter “repeatedly denigrated women referring to them as evil.”