The court decided to expel a US pastor from the Russian Federation for talking about religion and offering to pray for Trump. After the meeting, the pastor was reported to the police

The city court of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky decided to fine US citizen Paul Gione 30 thousand rubles and expel him from Russia. As follows from the decision published on the court’s website, he was found guilty of violating the law on religious associations due to “religious conversations” that he conducted at the local Full Gospel Church on May 23.

The document states that Gione, without appropriate permission, lectured church parishioners about religion and also called for prayers for the US President.

“Sibir.Realii” writes that as evidence the court accepted an audio recording secretly made at a meeting in the “Full Gospel Church” and handed over to employees of the Center for Countering Extremism. Representatives of the religious community said that the two people who transmitted the recording seemed suspicious to them: according to them, they were invited to the meeting by a certain person whom no one in the church knew.

Gione did not admit guilt and stated that he came to the church at the invitation of the local pastor. During the conversation, the American said, in particular, that in the United States it is customary to pray for its political leaders, and invited parishioners to pray for the US President. Currently, Gione is in a temporary detention center for foreigners.

According to the American, he has come to Russia 58 times; he and his wife adopted five girls from Russian orphanages.