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Jehovah Witness victims of Childhood Sex Abuse - and all supporters from California - Urgent Action Alert! Contact Assembly members today!
by Sol Reform in41 assembly votes are needed.
please contact all assembly members today!
ask them to vote yes on sb 131. call, write, fax, share this flier, talk to your colleagues, hold a press conference, write to newspapers.
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Sol Reform
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After a Jehovah's Witness secretly confronted a foster child, Eunice Spry was jailed for torturing three children; she is now set to be released from prison and re-homed near her victims. UK
by Sol Reform inafter a jehovah's witness secretly confronted a foster child, eunice spry was jailed for torturing three children; she is now set to be released from prison and re-homed near her victims.
uk.
(warning - graphic pictures and story).
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Sol Reform
Abusive Tewkesbury mother Eunice Spry to be released in weeks - and housed near the daughter she tortured
By Gloucestershire Echo | Posted: May 30, 2014
The squalor Eunice Spry's children were forced to live in Eunice Spry at Cheltenham Court Victoria Evans as a child after having her face sand-papered
Victoria Evans now 28 with her dogs
The filthy bathroom Eunice Spry made her children use
The squalor Eunice Spry's children were forced to live in
Eunice Spry at Cheltenham Court
Britain's most sadistic mother will be let out of jail within weeks, in July - and rehomed just miles from the adopted daughter she brutally tortured for nearly 20 years.
Eunice Spry, now 70, was jailed for 12 years after she was convicted of 26 charges of disgusting child abuse against her two foster children and an adopted daughter.
Evil Spry routinely beat, abused and starved the terrified youngsters - identified in court as Child A, B and C. She forced them to drink bleach and urine, eat their own vomit, stand naked and cold for hours on end and even sandpapered the skin from the face of one terrified child. Adopted daughter Victoria Evans, now 28, Child A, is speaking for the first time about the daily horrors she endured for 19 years before she bravely escaped and told police. Spry would regularly take her to a remote farm house and whip the soles of her feet with sticks which were then forced down her throat when she screamed. Tragic Victoria was once tied up naked and left blindfolded - for three months. Victoria was given a wheelchair after she miraculously survived a car crash that claimed the lives of two of her step-sisters to help her in the months after she left hospital.
But despite a rapid recovery, evil Spry banned her from walking until her leg muscles wasted away so she could continue her reign of terror, sandpapering the skin from her face. In spite of the horrors she suffered, brave Victoria has miraculously flourished, teaching herself to read and write, going to college and is now engaged to the love of her life. She has agreed to reveal her identity for the first time in a bid to show her mother she has not been broken - and beg authorities to reconsider housing the monster just 25 miles away. Unrepentant Spry has shown no remorse for her crimes and refuses to admit she carried out the heinous acts.
She is thought to have paid released prisoners to track down addresses on the outside - and while Victoria is no longer scared of her evil 'mother' she fears she will track her down. Victoria was handed over to Eunice when she was just 18 months old after her birth parents could no longer look after her. In one horrifying early assault Spry left defenceless Victoria bleeding from the mouth, her lips and gums cut to ribbons, after she prised the youngster's jaws open with a spoon to feed her. She said: "I don't remember it, but the abuse started pretty much straight away - I know that from her children who were there. "She was obsessed with being perfect. She had to look like the Von Trapp family. "The other children had to look perfect - they went to private school, ballet lessons, horse riding, and had to be seen to have the best.
"But when I came to her I wasn't perfect. I was a traumatised little girl. I hadn't been socialised like children should be. I was wetting the bed, I wasn't eating. I had been taken away from my real parents. "I don't remember this, but the first abuse I know of was when I was around age two. "Mum's natural daughter said the first memory she had was she saw me being held down. "I didn't want to come off milk, but my mum said 'she should be on solids'. "She held me down and prised my teeth open with a metal spoon. There was blood pouring down my face. "I would wet the bed and she would rub the sheets in my face, then she would tie my to the potty. I wasn't fitting into her ideal." Little Victoria got respite from her mother's torment during a very brief stint at school - before Spry pulled her out of classes under the guise of 'home schooling'. But even at school four-year-old Victoria was not free from her abuser's tricks. "She would drive every lunchtime to watch me," recalled Victoria. "I wasn't allowed to talk to other children or play with them, and I would get an absolute row from her.
"She would say 'I saw you talking to someone else'. I had no idea how she knew, and she told me 'I have a magic eye, I can see what's going on'. "There were grave concerns that I wasn't being fed lunch like the rest of the children so she told me to come home for my lunch. "I went home once and she wasn't there so I came back to school and said I hadn't had lunch. "I got beaten to a pulp because I told them, the teachers. "She pushed my lips to cut into my teeth, she would throw me down the stairs." Evil Spry split the family's time between a home near Gloucester and a farm house in Eckington, Worcestershire, left to her in a will by a man she apparently cared for. The ramshackle farm house - surrounded by trees and away from prying eyes - became what Victoria called the "torture house". "She would drive us to the farm house and lie us down, have Judith, her eldest natural daughter, stand on our windpipes to stop us screaming, and whip the soles of our feet with sticks. "That happened too many times to count. "She would force the sticks down our throats.
I will never forget the taste of wood, and blood and saliva as she pulled them out." One of the most harrowing stretches of abuse inflicted on Victoria came when she was aged eight or nine. A single chicken nugget went missing from the fridge, and when nobody owned up, Victoria was tied up naked in an upstairs bedroom - surviving on crusts and water - for three months. The horrendous episode came to an abrupt end when one of Spry's daughters found her and threatened to go to social services. Recalling the horror, Victoria said: "Nobody owned up. Me and my brother were tied up naked up in the bedroom. I'm not sure how long he was there, but I was left there for three months. "I was tied up with rope and blindfolded, and fed on crusts and water. It was a horrendous time. I was completely naked. It was so cold. "I would wet the floor and she would make me drink it up, lap it up from the floor. "When I would retch, she would say to me 'you are weak minded' and would say 'it's mind over matter'.
" A favourite punishment of Spry's would involve the children leaning with their backs against the wall in an excruciating half-seated position. Watching television - a treat Victoria was never allowed - she would swing a ruler with a leather fringe round her finger. As their feet slipped forward with sweat she would whip them on the toes until they bled. In September 2000, when Victoria was just 14, she was given a rare treat when the family went on a family holiday to Pontins in Weston-super-Mare. While her and the other foster kids were kept indoors, it was a break from the beatings and Victoria was allowed to keep a doll - one of the only toys she ever had - given to her by her grandmother while on the holiday.
But on the drive back home the car being driven by Judith was involved in a horrific accident on the M5. A lorry driver - who was later convicted in court - smashed into the back to the car while fiddling with his radio, forcing the vehicle under another lorry ahead. The crash instantly claimed the lives of Judith, 37, and Victoria's beloved step-sister Charlotte, 16, who was adopted one year before her. Victoria broke her neck in the crash and was left hanging and pinned, watching her step-brother, seven, - who also survived the smash - scream in agony. She was put in an induced coma for months, but as soon as she woke up, Spry blamed her for the crash, cruelly claiming she only survived because "the devil looks after his own".
"They were just dying in front of me," recalled Victoria. "I had a broken neck, leg fractures, a broken pelvis, hips, small of my back, both arms, legs, elbows, wrists, and had internal injuries too." Drifting in and out of sleep, suffering horrific nightmares while she recovered, Spry would tell her to shut up as soon as the nurse's backs were turned. She added: "As soon as I was able she held me by the throat telling me to tell me what happened. "I told her about how we had stopped to go to the seaside on the way home and her daughter has asked if we needed the toilet and I had said I didn't need to go. "She said I had killed them because I didn't go to the toilet. "She said 'why is it that my two precious daughters have died and scum like you still grace this earth'. "She said, 'the devil looks after his own his own, that's why you are still here'. I believed her. "It got to the point that I wished I had gone, I wished that somebody would put me out of my misery." After the accident, doctors told Spry that Victoria would need to be in a wheelchair for a few months, while she built up her strength.
But the sadistic monster forced her to stay in a wheelchair for four years in a cynical bid to maximise the disability living payments she received. Initially Victoria would use her feet to shuffle along the hallways, but after being punished she stopped, eventually suffering such terrible muscle wastage she was unable to walk. But the punishment continued, with Spry forcing her to crawl from her chair onto the filthy hallway floor to sleep at every night. "She would pull me out of the chair by my hair, I remember being kicked around the kitchen. I was kicked and kicked and kicked," she said. She would drag her around the house by her neck, slamming her into walls, digging her nails into her skin and even sandpapered the skin from her face.
When Victoria was 17, her younger brother - a step child favoured by Spry - asked if he could go to Jehovah's Witness meetings in Tewkesbury.
The apparently devout worshipper allowed the 12-year-old lad to go - but only if Victoria went with him to watch over him.
For the first time in her life, the teenager met people who not only cared for her, but noticed the horrific bruises and strangulation marks she was unable to hide under thick clothes. Spry came under question from the group, but blamed the injuries on an older step child, telling Victoria to do the same. But eventually the lies became too much, and the teenager broke down, telling everything to a young couple in the group who smuggled her out the house just before Christmas 2004. It took three weeks to build up the courage to tell the police, but brave Victoria eventually outlined the darkest details of the years of abuse.
"I was there the longest, I was there from when I was a little baby," she said. "She was all I knew, and like the others, despite it all, I still felt loyal to her." Spry - who to his day still denies any abuse - was arrested. Investigating officers scoured her two properties and recovered the bloody and splintered sticks she had shoved down her children's throats, as well as teeth knocked out in the process. Amongst the squaller in the homes they found unposted letters Victoria had written - but forgotten about - begging neighbours to 'please be my new mummy'. She was found guilty of 26 charges, including unlawful wounding, cruelty to a person under 16, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation. Judge Simon Darwall-Smith, at Bristol Crown Court, told Spry that this was the worst case he had come across in 40 years in law.
But despite the horrors, and free from the clutches of Spry, Victoria set about starting her life again. Victoria went to college to learn to read and write, and enrolled on maths and English classes, before taking up a course in hairdressing. She completed a course in childcare and dedicated four years to working in schools, before ongoing health problems - stemming from her abuse - forced her to give up work. But the keen photographer, who is devoted to the care of her two dogs, is engaged to her boyfriend of five years, living happily in Gloucestershire.
She said: "The dogs have really helped me through it all. I wouldn't have been able to do it without them. The fact they've always accepted me, has helped me through." She hopes one day to set up a charity to help other abused adults - and is currently looking for help to achieve her dream - and wants to write a book about her life. She said: "My younger siblings were helped because they were children, and older ones helped through the fact they had children, but I always seemed to fall between two places. Nobody was there. Nobody picked me up. "There is nothing out there, and I want to change that, and I am appealing to anyone who can help me to please get in touch. "I feel I have so much to give, but need help to do it."
A few weeks ago she was contacted by the probation service warning her that Spry was due to be released in July. After promising her year after year that Spry would be housed in the north of England, they revealed she had applied to be housed in Worcestershire - the very next county to Victoria. "The probation officer told me that she has not been interested in anything in prison - she hasn't taken part in any rehabilitation," said Victoria. "She is coming out with the very same mindset she went in with.
"The officer told me she wasn't supposed to tell me, but my mother has been paying people to do jobs for her, like tracking people down. They won't say who, but I think it is me.
"She has got hold of phones in there, and got on social networking sites. She's going to come out and play every game in the book. "And now they want to house her just down the road from me. It's dreadful, it's heartbreaking.
"I'm not asking for anything, but I deserve to just feel secure, to just carry on trying to keep going the best I can.
"Why do they have to just slap her in the next county to me? I asked why, and they said she requested it, and it has been granted. "If she comes anywhere near me I have friends now who will protect me - I'm not scared of her physically anymore. "But I have got on with my life, and knowing she is so close will be awful. "Even now, I see the swish of a ponytail out the corner of my eye when I'm out shopping and it gets my heart racing, thinking it is her. "I thought prison would break her, but I feel gravely concerned that it seems she is still playing the system, still controlling people, still getting her way.
"One day I want to settle down and have children. As long as they are honest kids who wake up in the morning happy, I'll be happy. "I'd try to be the best mum in the world. You can't mould kids, you just have to let them be who they are. "I wish her no harm, but I don't want here anywhere near us and I never want to see her again. "She is a psychopath and my concern is that being so close, she'll manage to find out where we are."
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After a Jehovah's Witness secretly confronted a foster child, Eunice Spry was jailed for torturing three children; she is now set to be released from prison and re-homed near her victims. UK
by Sol Reform inafter a jehovah's witness secretly confronted a foster child, eunice spry was jailed for torturing three children; she is now set to be released from prison and re-homed near her victims.
uk.
(warning - graphic pictures and story).
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Sol Reform
After a Jehovah's Witness secretly confronted a foster child, Eunice Spry was jailed for torturing three children; she is now set to be released from prison and re-homed near her victims. UK
(Warning - graphic pictures and story)
Foster mother who was jailed for 14 years for torturing three children in her care is set to be released from prison - and could now be re-homed near her victims
Eunice Spry, 70, subjected three children to abuse over 19-year period She was jailed in April 2007 for beating, abusing and starving the youngsters
According to probation service, she is due to be released from prison in July Her daughter Victoria Evans - one of her victims - is worried about release as Spry could live just 25 miles away from her
By Emma Glanfield Published: 02:21 EST, 30 May 2014 | Updated: 11:48 EST, 30 May 2014
Eunice Spry, 70, was jailed for 14 years in April 2007 after she was convicted of subjecting the vulnerable youngsters to years of horrific abuse A foster mother who was jailed for beating, abusing and starving three children in her care is set to be freed from prison in a matter of weeks – and could be rehomed just miles from the daughter she once tortured.
Eunice Spry, 70, was jailed for 14 years in April 2007 after she was convicted of subjecting the vulnerable youngsters to a ‘horrifying catalogue of cruel and sadistic treatment’ over a 19-year period. However, after serving just over half of her sentence, Spry is set to be released on parole in a couple of weeks and is reportedly set to be rehomed just 25 miles away from her daughter in Worcester, West Midlands. The news has horrified her adopted daughter Victoria Evans, 28. Speaking to The Sun, she said: ‘The thought of her living nearby again is dreadful – heart-breaking. ‘I don’t want her anywhere near us. She is a psychopath and my concern is that being so close she’ll find out where we are.’
During her reign of terror, Spry forced sticks down her daughters’ throat and made her eat her own vomit and rat excrement. As punishment for misbehaving, she would also beat her on the soles of her feet and force her to drink washing-up liquid and bleach. She even confined her to a wheelchair for three years after a car crash in a cynical bid to maximise compensation for the accident. Painful reminder: Victoria Spry, 28, has built a new life after years of abuse by her sadistic mother - who is now being released from jail and rehoused nearby Spry's daughter Victoria Evans, pictured after being abused by her foster mother, thinks she will be rehoused near to her family home The Jehovah's Witness, who committed the offences at her two homes in Gloucestershire between 1986 and 2005, also abused two other children in her care during the 19-year period.
Spry staunchly denied all the claims made against her and insisted the only physical punishment she ever used was ‘a smack on the bottom’. More... Rolf Harris's daughter accused him of sexually molesting her friend and was in such a state she furiously 'banged her head against a wall' But a jury at Bristol Crown Court convicted her of 26 charges, ranging from unlawful wounding, cruelty to a person under 16, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, perverting the course of justice and witness intimidation. At the time, Judge Simon Darwall-Smith told her it was the worst case he had come across in 40 years in law.
He told her: ‘Frankly, it's difficult for anyone to understand how any human being could have even contemplated what you did, let alone with the regularity and premeditation you employed.’ +6 Eunice Spry committed the offences at her two homes in Gloucestershire - one of which is pictured - between 1986 and 2005 +6 During her reign of terror, Spry forced sticks down her daughters' throat and made her eat her own vomit and rat excrement. Pictured: The bedroom of Spry's Gloucestershire home During the four-week trial the jury heard harrowing evidence of how Spry subjected the children to a regime of abuse. +6 Spry was jailed for 14 years in 2007 after being convicted by a jury at Bristol Crown Court
The three victims, known as Victim A, B and C, all gave evidence describing how their daily routines were punctuated by random acts of bizarre and sadistic violence at the hands of their foster mother.
The abuse was finally discovered after a Jehovah's Witness secretly confronted Ms Evans about marks to her head caused when Spry rubbed sandpaper over her face.
After managing to escape the house in 2004, aged 19, Ms Evans then plucked up the courage to report her foster mother to the police. Spry maintained her innocence throughout police interviews and during the subsequent trial but was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 14 years and ordered to pay costs of £80,000.
However, after appealing the sentence, it was reduced to 12 years and now, after serving just over half the time in prison, she is set to be released on licence. Ms Evans told The Sun she received a letter from the probation service informing her Spry is set to be released in July. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘Serious offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions and controls including restrictions of their movements.
‘If they fail to comply with these conditions they can be immediately returned to prison.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2643637/Foster-mother-jailed-14-years-torturing-three-children-care-set-released-prison-rehomed-near-terrified-victims.html#ixzz33EDg13WA ; Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
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Pensioner jailed for sex assault on 12-year-old Crawley girl he met through Jehovah's Witness church - UK
by Sol Reform inhttp://www.crawleynews.co.uk/pensioner-jailed-sex-assault-12-year-old-girl-met/story-21159650-detail/story.html.
pensioner jailed for sex assault on 12-year-old crawley girl he met through jehovah's witness church.
by cballinger | posted: may 29, 2014. jailed: oliver connor has been sentenced for a historic sex assault on a crawley girl.
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Sol Reform
Pensioner jailed for sex assault on 12-year-old Crawley girl he met through Jehovah's Witness church
By CBallinger | Posted: May 29, 2014
JAILED: Oliver Connor has been sentenced for a historic sex assault on a Crawley girl
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A 73-year-old man has been jailed for a historic sex offence on a Crawley girl he met through the Jehovah's Witness church.
Oliver Connor, who is already serving 12 and a half years imprisonment for sexual assaults on young girls in Berkshire, has now been sentenced to a further two and half years for a sexual assault on a 12-year-old girl which happened nearly 20 years ago.
Connor, of Blackstock Crescent in Sompting, was found guilty at Lewes Crown Court on May 16 of an indecent assault on the girl, who he had befriended through her family, at an address in Crawley.
Connor, who used to live in Crawley, is known to have been an active member of the Jehovah's Witness church for many years and it was through the faith that he made his initial contact.
Connor had previously appeared at Reading Crown Court in July 2012 for a series of sexual assaults on two young girls in Slough and Burnham Beeches between 1979 and 1982.
Detective Constable Ollie Summers of Crawley CID said; "News of this conviction encouraged the Crawley victim to come forward later in 2012.
"We worked with her in a thorough investigation which included liaison with colleagues from Thames Valley Police in order to better understand Connor's previous crimes which helped to strengthen our case against him
"She gave evidence in court and this has now achieved some justice for her and will hopefully help her to move on with her life. It also shows that we will always take such allegations seriously, no matter how long ago they are said to have happened."
Connor had lived in Sussex for several years, in Crawley and in Sompting until he was arrested by Thames Valley officers two years ago. Both we and Thames Valley Police would encourage anyone else who wishes to report being assaulted by Connor at any time over the past 35 years to get in touch.
"We know that Connor, who worked as an electrician, was for many years an active member of the Jehovah's Witness church, wherever he lived, and it was through that church that he met his Crawley victim.
"You can call us in confidence at any time via 101 and arrange to talk in confidence to detectives."
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Four Jehovah's Witnesses face death penalty - Victim of Pakistan's Blasphemy Law.
by Sol Reform infour jehovah's witnesses face death penalty - victim of pakistan's blasphemy law.. http://www.charismanews.com/world/44004-popular-tv-show-the-latest-victim-of-pakistan-s-blasphemy-law.
popular tv show the latest victim of pakistan's blasphemy law 10:00am edt 5/28/2014.
world watch monitor film actress veena malik and her husband, assad khattak khan, were charged with blasphemy after a re-enactment of their wedding appeared on "utho jago pakistan.
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Sol Reform
' You have already started 2 topic(s) in the last 24 hours out of your limit of 1.
You cannot start another until your oldest topic expires a day from now.'(sorry admin. it was the demons again) I had nothing to do with dbl/post.
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Four Jehovah's Witnesses face death penalty - Victim of Pakistan's Blasphemy Law.
by Sol Reform infour jehovah's witnesses face death penalty - victim of pakistan's blasphemy law.. http://www.charismanews.com/world/44004-popular-tv-show-the-latest-victim-of-pakistan-s-blasphemy-law.
popular tv show the latest victim of pakistan's blasphemy law 10:00am edt 5/28/2014.
world watch monitor film actress veena malik and her husband, assad khattak khan, were charged with blasphemy after a re-enactment of their wedding appeared on "utho jago pakistan.
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Sol Reform
Four Jehovah's Witnesses face death penalty - Victim of Pakistan's Blasphemy Law.
Popular TV Show the Latest Victim of Pakistan's Blasphemy Law 10:00AM EDT 5/28/2014
World Watch Monitor Film actress Veena Malik and her husband, Assad Khattak Khan, were charged with blasphemy after a re-enactment of their wedding appeared on "Utho Jago Pakistan." (Geo TV) With several Christians on trial awaiting potential death sentences for allegedly committing blasphemy, tensions are increasingly high across the nation with a record-breaking amount of blasphemy charges being waged against both non-Muslims and Muslims alike.
Commonly known as the blasphemy law, Pakistan's Penal Code Section 295C's death penalty went into effect in 1986 for the "use of derogatory remarks in respect of the [Islam's] Holy Prophet." In 1990, the Federal Shari'ah Court ruled that the penalty should be a mandatory death sentence, with no right to a pardon. May is especially unique with regards to this law, because never before has it caused so much upheaval as has been witnessed this month. On Saturday, May 17, three cases of blasphemy were registered in different parts of the country.
The first was against a small group of Jehovah's Witnesses arrested for handing out their organization Watchtower leaflets;
the second was against a 20-year-old Muslim youth for allegedly setting the Quran—Islam's sacred book—on fire;
the third was against Pakistan's biggest media tycoon, Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, a morning show host, a film actress and the actress' husband for allegedly airing a show with blasphemous content on the nation's Geo TV morning show titled Utho Jago Pakistan (Get up, Wake up, Pakistan).
The four Jehovah Witnesses—Javed Younus, his wife, Nazia Javed, Sri Lankan national Carol David and Rose Marry—were arrested for distributing Watchtower outreach leaflets in a Christian colony in Mirpurkhas.
Talking to World Watch Monitor, Jam Zaffar, the senior superintendent of Police of Pakistan Railways in Mirpurkhas, said the distribution of Watchtower leaflets was noticed by a member of Ahle Sunnat wa-al Jamaat (ASWJ), considered one of the most violent organizations carrying out terrorist activities inside Pakistan, who responded by alerting other ASWJ activists to the scene which resulted in the group of four being surrounded by hundreds of protestors.
Zaffar said the protesters were especially angry, so there was fear of violence and bloodshed. Francis Khokhar, who is legally representing the group, told World Watch Monitor, "As soon as I came to know that the police have taken them in custody without formally registering a complaint, I filed a [motion for] habeas corpus." Pastor Samson Shukardin also spoke to World Watch Monitor, saying, "After the police had registered the case, they were unsure about Jehovah's Witnesses because they knew only about Protestant and Catholic branches of Christianity."
The three women were released on bail, but Younus was sent to jail.
Zaffar said that during the process ASWJ had surrounded the police station. "They seemed to have planned to halt the city and descent to violence," he said. Jehovah's Witnesses are a sect established in 1870, in Pennsylvania.
The Watchtower Society was started by Charles Taze Russell. Jehovah's Witnesses refer to themselves as Christians, but their beliefs differ from those of orthodox Christians, who do not consider them to be Christian, since there are many inconsistencies in their beliefs alongside fundamental teachings of the faith.
On the same day, but 900 kilometers northeast of Mirpurkhas, a 20-year-old Muslim youth allegedly set the Quran ablaze. In a fit of anger, Nazir Ahmed set the book on fire in Arifwala. His mother was furious and cried out for help; neighbors gathered and started to beat him. He was reported to have been beaten so severely he was close to death, but police intervened and took Ahmed into custody.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, on the same day, the media tycoon Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, the morning show host Shaista Lodhi, film actress Veena Malik, and her husband Assad Khattak Khan, were charged with allegedly airing a blasphemous show on Geo TV. Three days before, Geo TV channel's morning show had aired the re-enactment of the actress Malik and her husband's marriage. During this re-enactment, a Sufi song was sung that captures marriage between Ali, the fourth caliph of Islam, and the Islamic Prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima. Presenting Malik as a bride while the religious song was played infuriated many Pakistanis. Other private TV channels repeatedly telecast the program, further fueling anger toward Geo TV, which receives nearly half of Pakistan's viewership and is often dubbed as foreign-funded and called 'Jew' TV rather than 'Geo' TV.
The Margala Police Station registered a case against them under the blasphemy and anti-terrorism laws. The Sunni Ittehad Council, an organization that represents 160 million Pakistani Sunni Muslims, separately started a petition on Saturday against the TV show presenters in the Supreme Court. Muslim attorneys are no longer safe The country does have some natives who are trying to fight the abuse of blasphemy prosecution, at the risk of their own lives.
On May 7, a prominent human rights lawyer, Rashid Rehman, representing a teacher accused of blasphemy in Multan, about 550 kilometres southwest of Islamabad, was murdered. Rehman is the first lawyer to be killed for taking on a blasphemy case. Rehman was shot by gunmen posing as clients in his office for representing Junaid Hafeez, an English professor arrested in March 2013 after being accused by his students for insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Facebook.
Hafeez had been in prison for nearly a year before Rehman agreed to represent him; his case became one of Rehman's 228 blasphemy cases, including Sherry Rehman, who was Pakistan's ambassador to the United States when charged with defaming Islam. Rehman joins a list of Pakistanis killed while opposing the country's widely popular anti-blasphemy laws. Two elected officials, Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti, were killed while trying to pass an amendment in the Penal Code to end abuse of the laws.
The U.S. State Department and the Human Rights Watch have urged the Pakistani government to investigate Rehman's killing. In a separate incident on May 14, a criminal case of blasphemy was lodged against 68 Muslim lawyers. The lawyers were arrested for arranging a protest against a police officer who had illegally detained one of the group's colleagues.
The penalty for blasphemy in Pakistan is death, though no one convicted under the law has been executed. Most are freed on appeal, often to face mob justice. Several people are thought to have been murdered while on trial, and more than 50 have been murdered in extrajudicial killings.
The original blasphemy law dates back Britain's colonial rule over India, prior to the 1947 partition that created Pakistan. It was intended to prevent Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs from using provocative religious language against each other. However, under Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq, in power from 1987-1988, the law was changed to protect only the Sunni version of Islam. It has since increasingly become a pretext to pressure Pakistan's religious minorities.
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Four Jehovah's Witnesses face death penalty - Victim of Pakistan's Blasphemy Law.
by Sol Reform infour jehovah's witnesses face death penalty - victim of pakistan's blasphemy law.. http://www.charismanews.com/world/44004-popular-tv-show-the-latest-victim-of-pakistan-s-blasphemy-law.
popular tv show the latest victim of pakistan's blasphemy law 10:00am edt 5/28/2014.
world watch monitor film actress veena malik and her husband, assad khattak khan, were charged with blasphemy after a re-enactment of their wedding appeared on "utho jago pakistan.
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Sol Reform
Four Jehovah's Witnesses face death penalty - Victim of Pakistan's Blasphemy Law.
Popular TV Show the Latest Victim of Pakistan's Blasphemy Law 10:00AM EDT 5/28/2014
World Watch Monitor Film actress Veena Malik and her husband, Assad Khattak Khan, were charged with blasphemy after a re-enactment of their wedding appeared on "Utho Jago Pakistan." (Geo TV)
With several Christians on trial awaiting potential death sentences for allegedly committing blasphemy, tensions are increasingly high across the nation with a record-breaking amount of blasphemy charges being waged against both non-Muslims and Muslims alike.
Commonly known as the blasphemy law, Pakistan's Penal Code Section 295C's death penalty went into effect in 1986 for the "use of derogatory remarks in respect of the [Islam's] Holy Prophet."
In 1990, the Federal Shari'ah Court ruled that the penalty should be a mandatory death sentence, with no right to a pardon.
May is especially unique with regards to this law, because never before has it caused so much upheaval as has been witnessed this month. On Saturday, May 17, three cases of blasphemy were registered in different parts of the country.
The first was against a small group of Jehovah's Witnesses arrested for handing out their organization Watchtower leaflets;
the second was against a 20-year-old Muslim youth for allegedly setting the Quran—Islam's sacred book—on fire;
the third was against Pakistan's biggest media tycoon, Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, a morning show host, a film actress and the actress' husband for allegedly airing a show with blasphemous content on the nation's Geo TV morning show titled Utho Jago Pakistan (Get up, Wake up, Pakistan).
The four Jehovah Witnesses—Javed Younus, his wife, Nazia Javed, Sri Lankan national Carol David and Rose Marry—were arrested for distributing Watchtower outreach leaflets in a Christian colony in Mirpurkhas.
Talking to World Watch Monitor, Jam Zaffar, the senior superintendent of Police of Pakistan Railways in Mirpurkhas, said the distribution of Watchtower leaflets was noticed by a member of Ahle Sunnat wa-al Jamaat (ASWJ), considered one of the most violent organizations carrying out terrorist activities inside Pakistan, who responded by alerting other ASWJ activists to the scene which resulted in the group of four being surrounded by hundreds of protestors. Zaffar said the protesters were especially angry, so there was fear of violence and bloodshed.
Francis Khokhar, who is legally representing the group, told World Watch Monitor, "As soon as I came to know that the police have taken them in custody without formally registering a complaint, I filed a [motion for] habeas corpus." Pastor Samson Shukardin also spoke to World Watch Monitor, saying, "After the police had registered the case, they were unsure about Jehovah's Witnesses because they knew only about Protestant and Catholic branches of Christianity."
The three women were released on bail, but Younus was sent to jail.
Zaffar said that during the process ASWJ had surrounded the police station. "They seemed to have planned to halt the city and descent to violence," he said.
Jehovah's Witnesses are a sect established in 1870, in Pennsylvania. The Watchtower Society was started by Charles Taze Russell. Jehovah's Witnesses refer to themselves as Christians, but their beliefs differ from those of orthodox Christians, who do not consider them to be Christian, since there are many inconsistencies in their beliefs alongside fundamental teachings of the faith.
On the same day, but 900 kilometers northeast of Mirpurkhas, a 20-year-old Muslim youth allegedly set the Quran ablaze.
In a fit of anger, Nazir Ahmed set the book on fire in Arifwala. His mother was furious and cried out for help; neighbors gathered and started to beat him. He was reported to have been beaten so severely he was close to death, but police intervened and took Ahmed into custody. Elsewhere in Pakistan, on the same day, the media tycoon Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, the morning show host Shaista Lodhi, film actress Veena Malik, and her husband Assad Khattak Khan, were charged with allegedly airing a blasphemous show on Geo TV.
Three days before, Geo TV channel's morning show had aired the re-enactment of the actress Malik and her husband's marriage. During this re-enactment, a Sufi song was sung that captures marriage between Ali, the fourth caliph of Islam, and the Islamic Prophet Muhammad's daughter Fatima. Presenting Malik as a bride while the religious song was played infuriated many Pakistanis. Other private TV channels repeatedly telecast the program, further fueling anger toward Geo TV, which receives nearly half of Pakistan's viewership and is often dubbed as foreign-funded and called 'Jew' TV rather than 'Geo' TV. The Margala Police Station registered a case against them under the blasphemy and anti-terrorism laws.
The Sunni Ittehad Council, an organization that represents 160 million Pakistani Sunni Muslims, separately started a petition on Saturday against the TV show presenters in the Supreme Court. Muslim attorneys are no longer safe The country does have some natives who are trying to fight the abuse of blasphemy prosecution, at the risk of their own lives. On May 7, a prominent human rights lawyer, Rashid Rehman, representing a teacher accused of blasphemy in Multan, about 550 kilometres southwest of Islamabad, was murdered. Rehman is the first lawyer to be killed for taking on a blasphemy case.
Rehman was shot by gunmen posing as clients in his office for representing Junaid Hafeez, an English professor arrested in March 2013 after being accused by his students for insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Facebook. Hafeez had been in prison for nearly a year before Rehman agreed to represent him; his case became one of Rehman's 228 blasphemy cases, including Sherry Rehman, who was Pakistan's ambassador to the United States when charged with defaming Islam. Rehman joins a list of Pakistanis killed while opposing the country's widely popular anti-blasphemy laws. Two elected officials, Salmaan Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti, were killed while trying to pass an amendment in the Penal Code to end abuse of the laws.
The U.S. State Department and the Human Rights Watch have urged the Pakistani government to investigate Rehman's killing. In a separate incident on May 14, a criminal case of blasphemy was lodged against 68 Muslim lawyers. The lawyers were arrested for arranging a protest against a police officer who had illegally detained one of the group's colleagues.
The penalty for blasphemy in Pakistan is death, though no one convicted under the law has been executed. Most are freed on appeal, often to face mob justice. Several people are thought to have been murdered while on trial, and more than 50 have been murdered in extrajudicial killings.
The original blasphemy law dates back Britain's colonial rule over India, prior to the 1947 partition that created Pakistan. It was intended to prevent Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs from using provocative religious language against each other. However, under Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq, in power from 1987-1988, the law was changed to protect only the Sunni version of Islam. It has since increasingly become a pretext to pressure Pakistan's religious minorities.
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'Jehovah's Witness elders who participated in this shameful activity should immediately remove themselves from any position of authority in the church,apologize to victims, ...' Snap Media Statements
by Sol Reform inhttp://www.snapnetwork.org/ireland_jehovah_s_witness_allow_predator_to_grill_victim.
ireland--jehovah's witness allow predator to "grill" victim jehovah's witness elders allowed convicted predator to "grill" victims; victims respond.
http://www.sundayworld.com/top-stories/crime-desk/donal-macintyre-s-crime-cafe/jehovahs-witness-elders-allow-paedophile-to-grill-his-victims.
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Sol Reform
Charity Commission investigates Jehovah's Witness congregation in relation to indecent assault case By Sam Burne James, Third Sector Online, 28 May 2014 Charity Commission Manchester New Moston Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses is at the centre of reports that a convicted offender was allowed to question his victims at a public meeting The Charity Commission has opened an operational compliance case into a Manchester-based Jehovah’s Witness congregation following concerns about how it protects vulnerable beneficiaries.
The commission said it was in discussions with Manchester New Moston Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses after reports in the Manchester Evening News that a congregation member, Jonathan Rose, who was recently released from prison after serving nine months for the indecent of assault of two girls, was allowed to question his victims in front of congregation elders. The victims were required to recount the abuse at the meeting in order to have Rose barred from the church, the paper says.
A spokeswoman for the commission said: "The commission has ongoing serious concerns about the Manchester New Moston Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in connection with its policies and procedures for the protection of vulnerable beneficiaries. We are engaging with the charity’s trustees about our concerns. We cannot comment further at this stage." The commission added that it had opened an operational compliance case into the charity.
The charity has been registered with the commission since 1997 and had income of between £5,000 and £10,000 for each of the past five years.
A spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses told Third Sector while it did allow victims and their perpetrators to meet, this would only happen with the victim's consent and the meetings would be held in private.
He added in a statement: "When any one of Jehovah's Witnesses is accused of serious wrongdoing, the matter is investigated. If a victim wishes to assist by providing details, this can be done in person or in writing.
Victims are never forced to attend a meeting or confront an alleged perpetrator of child abuse, and indeed we have no power to do so.
Any meetings are held in private and are not public. When child safeguarding is concerned, these procedures are in place to help protect children."
He said he was unable to comment further on the Manchester New Moston Congregation case, but said that Rose is no longer one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
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Jehovah Witness victims of Childhood Sex Abuse - and all supporters from California - Urgent Action Alert! Contact Assembly members today!
by Sol Reform in41 assembly votes are needed.
please contact all assembly members today!
ask them to vote yes on sb 131. call, write, fax, share this flier, talk to your colleagues, hold a press conference, write to newspapers.
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Sol Reform
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers have approved legislation that would extend the amount of time victims of childhood sexual abuse have to come forward. SB926 by Sen. Jim Beall would give victims until age 40 to report alleged abuse they suffered as a child.
The current statute of limitations is age 28. Beall, a Democrat from San Jose, says the current law favors abusers who can simply "wait out the clock" to avoid being prosecuted. He says many child sexual assault victims suppress the memories and do not recall their abuse until years later.
The bill passed the Assembly on a 33-0 vote Tuesday and now heads to the Senate.
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Billy Graham's Grandson Responds to Sovereign Grace Ministries Lawsuit
by Sol Reform inhttp://www.christianpost.com/news/billy-grahams-grandson-responds-to-sovereign-grace-ministries-lawsuit-97590/#mo4kztfo5tujfsbu.99.
billy graham's grandson responds to sovereign grace ministries lawsuit6 share.
(photo: sbts via the christian post)c. j. mahaney, president of sovereign grace ministries, speaks at southern baptist theological seminary in louisville, ky., on thursday, feb. 10, 2011.by anugrah kumar , christian post contributorjune 8, 2013|2:33 pm.
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Sol Reform
A class-action lawsuit originally filed in October 2012, and twice amended, claims that church members were taught to distrust secular authorities and that to discuss abuse allegations with other church members amounted to gossip.
When authorities were called, it alleges, church leaders helped accused predators avoid arrest, while requiring victims as young as 3 to meet with and “forgive” their abuser.
http://www.abpnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/28739-sbc-leader-enters-twitter-fray