The U.S. Grace pastor Pak Hio Sun is charged with bribing a Russian migration officer past July and faces the sentence of up to eight years in prison.
Photo: Denis Kurilenko
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Pastor Charged With Bribing
The Sakhalin regions’ investigating department of the RF Prosecutor General Office has forwarded to the court a case opened against the U.S. Grace pastor Pak Hio Sun. The missionary, 66, is charged with bribing a Russian migration officer past July and faces the sentence of up to eight years in prison.
The City Court in Kholmsk, Sakhalin, has accepted for consideration a case opened against the U.S. Grace pastor Pak Hio Sun, the news service of Sakhalin region’s investigating department announced yesterday. The investigation was completed in late past year but the accused doesn’t know English and the files were to be translated into the Korean language, which extended the process till April.
The Grace Church pastor and his interpreter were detained July 9, 2007 in Kholmsk, when he was trying to hand over a bribe of 300,000 ruble to the migration officer in the office of the latter. According to the bureaucrat, the pastor wanted from him to halt the administrative procedures against the Chinese, whom he had hired to build a church in Kholmsk.
The pastor said he brought the money (400,000 ruble) to pay a legitimate fine. “Not knowing Russian, the missionary was sure he was paying a fine to the Federal Migration Service Department, by handing over the money to the chief of migration control. He thought the fines are paid this way in Russia,” explained defending lawyer Vyacheslav Zhigalov.
The date of preliminary trial in the City Court hasn’t been set yet. The proceedings may drag for half a year due to the need to translate the files into Korean. If found guilty, Pak Hio Sun will face a sentence of up to eight years in prison.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 29, 2008
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