US evangelist arrested in Rwanda over 'illegal' meeting

Kigali. A US missionary was arrested in Rwanda on Monday for illegally meeting journalists, police said, after he called a press conference to criticise the government for shutting down his church and radio station.

Gregg Schoof, a Baptist, has been operating in Rwanda since 2003, mainly through his church and a radio station, Amazing Grace FM, which was shut last year over a sermon that called women "evil" and "prostitutes".

He was arrested with one of his sons, who was not named, at the start of a press conference at which he planned to read out a statement slamming the government's "heathen practices".

"We arrested Mr Schoof and handed him over to the Rwanda Investigative Bureau. He was arrested for holding an illegal meeting with journalists in a public space," police spokesman John Bosco Kabera told AFP.

"It is illegal to hold meetings in public spaces without authorisation."

In April last year, Rwanda's regulatory authority revoked his radio station's licence, saying he failed to comply with sanctions after a controversial sermon aired in which a presenter "repeatedly denigrated women referring to them as evil."

Schoof sued the government and lost his case in October last year.

His church was also among about 700 shut in February for "failing to comply with building regulations and for noise pollution."

In a statement handed to journalists before his arrest he asked if authorities -- by shutting his church -- were trying to "smack God in the face ... that is what devils do."

"Is this government trying to send people to hell?" he asked, before slamming the teaching of evolution in schools, the handing out of condoms in schools, and the easing of restrictions on abortion.