Posted by OZ on June 28, 2005 at 16:18:42
In Reply to: Kenyan woman goes missing posted by mph on June 27, 2005 at 17:31:20:
Cult Aussie on abduction charge
June 28, 2005
From: AAP
A 42-year-old Australian member of a religious cult has been charged with abduction after being detained in Kenya.
Roland Gianstefani, from New South Wales, a member of the Sydney-based Jesus Christians internet cult, was taken into police custody on June 17.
Kenyan authorities failed initially to press charges despite laws preventing police holding suspects without charge for more than 48 hours.
The Jesus Christians said Mr Gianstefani had today been charged with one count of abduction and one count of hawking without a licence.
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Jesus Christians founder Dave McKay said the abduction charge related to a Kenyan woman named Betty and her seven-year-old son staying with the cult community on a trial basis.
"We are all rejoicing that charges have finally been laid," Mr McKay said in Sydney today.
"Our greatest concern has been that Roland would simply disappear while in custody, and not be heard from again."
The Jesus Christians drew attention in Australia last year after claims they lied to health authorities so they could donate their kidneys to strangers.
NSW later introduced legislation to legalise live kidney donations by strangers.
A Foreign Affairs Department spokeswoman said yesterday that Mr Gianstefani had been visited by consular officials and had engaged a lawyer.
The Jesus Christians claim Mr Gianstefani is being used as a hostage "by corrupt officials and powerful parents" and that police and relatives had threatened to charge him with kidnapping if Betty did not turn herself in.
"Near the end of her trial week, her father negotiated with police in Kenya to take Roland prisoner as a way of forcing the mother (Betty) to leave the community and give herself up to him and the police," the group's email said yesterday.
"It is not clear whether Roland would be charged with kidnapping Betty or with kidnapping Betty's seven-year-old son Joshua but the simple facts are that both Betty and Joshua have spoken over the phone to police, assuring them that they have not been abducted.
"Conditions are very rough and Roland is afraid for his safety."
The cult said when members had earlier tried to visit Mr Gianstefani, police had moved him to another police station.
"Police are actively seeking other members of the community, having entered and searched two of our offices when we were not there," the email said.
Mr Gianstefani and his wife Susan were given suspended six-month jail sentences in 2000 by a court in England after refusing to reveal the whereabouts of an English teenager who left home to join the Jesus Christians.
Bobby Kelly, 16, disappeared in June 2000, saying he wanted to stay with the group and was found a month later living with two men in a tent in a Hampshire forest.
The Gianstefanis were among those who met Bobby at a shopping centre before he disappeared.
The 16-year-old later said he had hoped to remain with the group for the rest of his life.