Turkish Protestant pastor arrested

November 26, 2013

A Turkish Protestant pastor has been arrested on charges of prostitution and human trafficking, according to multiple media reports.

Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, reported that the charges are false.

Orhan Picaklar, 42, converted from Islam to Christianity at the age of 21 and has been pastor of a church in Samsun, a north-central Turkish city of 540,000, since 2003. A spokesman for Turkey’s Alliance of Protestant Churches said that Pickalar has been “harassed for years by local media and city authorities who openly opposed the church’s existence,” according to World Watch Monitor, a news agency that reports on the persecution of Christians.

 

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Further information:

• Turkish pastor arrested on human trafficking accusations (World Watch Monitor)
• Protestant Christian Pastor arrested on false charges of human trafficking (Fides)