Cuban Pastor Acquitted, but Convicted on New Charge

CUBA – A Cuban court acquitted Rev. Carlos Lamelas of human trafficking, but convicted him on previously unannounced charges of falsification of documents.

According to Compass Direct News, the judges imposed a fine of 1,000 Cuban pesos ($45)for the new charges. “Even though this (sentence) is favorable, we are not satisfied. If a crime of falsification truly had been committed, that would make me an accomplice to trafficking in humans, and I would not have been acquitted. How can it be that I am innocent of the original crime, and nevertheless guilty of the one they later invented,” Lamelas told Compass News.

Lamelas was arrested in a police raid at his home on February 20. The evangelical pastor and former national president of the Church of God in Cuba was in jail for more than four months, before being unexpectedly released from the Villa Marita Detention Center on June 26.

Thank you to all who prayed for and wrote to Pastor Lamelas.