Pastor permitted to resume work as church leader

Pastor Ramon Rigal, of the Church of God in Cuba, appeared in court on 8 August, where he was informed that he will be allowed to resume his work as a church leader.

On 25 April, Pastor Rigal wassentenced to one year in a correctional facility, while his wife was sentenced to one year of house arrest for their decision to home-school their children. They felt that state school teaching emphasised a Marxist-Leninist atheist ideology which regularly demeans Christianity and Christians. Pastor Rigal’s daughter had also reported being bullied at school and punched in the stomach by another student.​

The pastor’s sentence was reduced to house arrest on 6 July on the provision that his children return to state school in September.He was also barred from serving as a church leader and assigned a new job checking for mosquitoes in the water supply of local houses.

While he will now be allowed to resume his work as a church leader, the pastor and his wife are still under house arrest. The situation regarding their children’s education also remains unresolved despite the fact that they have since been granted scholarships to and enrolled in an online course through an international Christian school.

CSW’s Senior Advocate for the Americas, Anna Lee Stangl, said, “While we welcome the news that Pastor Rigal will be able to continue leading his church, he and his wife are still under house arrest. We continue to call for the unwarranted sentences that he and his wife received to be cancelled and for the government to cease its harassment of the family and their church.”

​Pastor Ramon Rigal’s case features in CSW’s new reporton freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Cuba, which details several other casesin which the family members of church leaders and activists are singled out for harassment and discrimination by the authorities.