Bomber may avoid jail time

Jack Teitel in handcuffs.
(Photo courtesy of Israel Watcher)

Israel (MNN) ― Jewish extremist Jack Teitel may not be facing prison time for his crime of bombing a Christian-Jewish pastor’s home among other offenses.

According to sources fromVoice of the Martyrs USA, Teitel’s attorneys are going for revised charges that do not label his act as a hate crime.

If Teitel pleads guilty under these new charges, then he would most likely be sent to a psychiatric institution and avoid prison.

According to The Christian Post, the bombing occurred back in March 2008. Teitel placed a booby-trapped basket of Purim at the front door of Messianic Pastor David Ortiz’s home.

The explosion severely injured Pastor Ortiz’s son, Ami, who was 15 at the time. Since then, Ami has significantly recovered.

Already, Teitel openly takes credit for the bombing. Voice of the Martyrs USA says his motivation was thought to be getting rid of those in Israel who believe differently than he does—that is, Orthodox Jews.

Teitel does have a history of earning exempt status in court since, back in 2010, he was declared unfit to stand trial after a psychiatric evaluation. Later, however, that decision was withdrawn.

Along with the Ortiz bombing case, Teitel stands trial for murder shootings, attempted arson, and another bombing case.

However, prosecutors are either sidelining or avoiding Ortiz in pursuing justice for his case. Ortiz says it is because his prosecutor doesn’t want to have a reputation of defending Christians.

Please pray for justice in Ortiz’s case. Pray that the peace of the Lord will cover their family and that they may be a living example of Christ’s example in the midst of persecution.

No justice for kidnapping case

Sudan (MNN) ― Kidnapping, rape, torture, and threats are all methods of persecution suffered by Christians in Sudan at the hands of Muslims. One teenage girl who recently escaped from the hands of her Islamic abductors suffered all four.
Voice of the Martyrs, Canada(VCM) reported that Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo, 16, was abducted last year on June 17 by a Muslim gang. She was just reunited with her family last month after several months of trauma and suffering.

According to VCM's source with Compass Direct, Hiba was kidnapped while going to the Ministry of Education for transcripts to enter into secondary school. She didn't know she was being monitored and one of the kidnappers pretended to work for the Ministry of Education.

She was taken and moved around various locations in Khartoum by her kidnappers. All the while, Hiba was constantly pressured to convert from Christianity to Islam. She was often locked in a room and beaten until she lost consciousness.
In trying to recount the story to Compass Direct, Hiba broke into tears. "They did many bad things to me," she says.

The group members tortured her and referred to her family as "infidels." They would not let her pray Christian prayers, and the leader of the group sexually abused her. "Apart from abusing me sexually, he tried to force me to change my faith and kept reminding me to prepare for Ramadan," says Hiba.

Two days after Hiba was kidnapped, her family started receiving threatening phone calls and text messages demanding a random of 1,500 Sudanese pounds ($560 USD) if they wanted her back.

Hiba's mother, Anglo, went to the police station to open a case to find her daughter, but the police refused unless Anglo converted to Islam as well.

Hiba tried to run away three different times, but each time her captors caught her and severely beat her for trying to escape. Freedom finally did come when Hiba gave enough of a pretense of converting to Islam for her captors to lighten up on guarding her. She got out and begged a motorcyclist to give her a ride to her home two hours away.
Such a situation just shows the intensity of the religious profiling at the level of law enforcement in Sudan and the ongoing persecution there.

Even Hiba's captors were so sure of their safety if they were caught. Hiba says she was warned by her captors, "Even if you call the government, they will not do anything to us."

Anglo says, "It is good that those who prayed for us to know that their prayers were answered, and that my daughter is back at home with me. I also need prayers because I am jobless since the time my daughter was kidnapped."

Please pray for Christians in Sudan suffering persecution both from Islamic groups and from lack of justice by the law.

Pray for the emotional and spiritual wellness of Hiba and she and her family recover in Christ from this traumatic time.