FSB suspects students from Africa of illegal missionary activity

The FSB department for the Nizhny Novgorod region suspects three students from local universities from Namibia, Malawi and Côte d'Ivoire of illegal missionary activities because of a video with an invitation to the local church "Embassy of Jesus". about it . writes Rain

The report says that the channel has a copy of the document on the results of the FSB check, sent to the local department of the Ministry of Justice. The document is dated February 20, 2018.

This document draws attention to the publication of a video with an invitation to a religious "encounter" event, which was published on Facebook by the "Embassy of Jesus" in 2016. Rain, citing a spokesman for the church, clarifies that the "encounter" is a time when church supporters talk "on topics such as love, faith and dream based on the Bible."

In the video, four students talk about how they were affected by participation in past "encounters". Present on the video: David Deborah Kangenge and Mzengereza Tingavena from the Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy (NSMA), Kpata Evilafo Adel Olivia Romuald from the Kozma Minin Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University, and former student of the NSMA Chileshe Maurin from Zambia, who graduated in 2017 and left Russia. According to the channel, the church has already deleted this video.

The document says that young people came to the country on student visas and were not invited "for the purpose of engaging in professional religious activities." The FSB officers concluded that the students carried out "missionary activities on behalf of a religious organization", without having documents confirming such authority.

Lawyer Vladimir Malinin, who represents the interests of the church, told Dozhd that the regional department of the Ministry of Justice had drawn up two protocols for the Embassy of Jesus. The first is under Part 3 of Article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (activities of a religious organization without indicating its official name), the second is under Part 4 of the same article (missionary activity that violates the requirements of legislation on freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and religious associations).

According to NIA Nizhny Novgorod, on April 28 the court fined the Embassy of Jesus for 130,000 rubles. The judge agreed with the Ministry of Justice that the church is conducting missionary activities without permits, and also did not indicate its name when publishing the video. Lawyer Malinin believes that the participation of students in the event cannot be considered missionary activity.

David Deborah Kangenge told The Rain that she "went to church but didn't hear about the test and doesn't do missionary work." Mzengerez Tingavena told the TV channel that he did not know about the FSB check.

Dozhdu writes that the staff of the Embassy of Jesus church decided not to tell students about the FSB check until their status is clear.

• On April 24, a court in Nizhny Novgorod ruled to expel Kudzai Nyamarebwa, a student at the Volga Research Medical University from Zimbabwe, from Russia for "conducting missionary activities."
• According to the channel, the girl also visited the Embassy of Jesus. The reason for the expulsion was the reposts of two videos: one shows a concert of a choir of foreign students, the other Nyamarebvu talks about God. The court allowed her to stay in Russia until the end of June to complete her studies.