By Sudan correspondent, Morning Star News
The Rev. David Yein Reith
The second pastor of South Sudanese descent in less than three weeks has been arrested without charges in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, sources said.
Sudan’s National Security and Intelligence Services (NISS) arrested the Rev. David Yein Reith of the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church on Jan. 9 as he returned to his home at the Gerif West Bible School in Khartoum from a prayer meeting, said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Reith received a phone call earlier that day from someone threatening to “arrest” his wife and 1-year-old son if he failed to go to his home immediately.
“We will arrest your entire family should you fail to come home as soon as possible,” the caller told the pastor, according to the source.
The pastor’s wife has repeatedly asked NISS officials under what charge he is being held without an answer, she said.
“We are still interrogating him; he is in custody,” one NISS official told her.
Though of South Sudanese descent, Reith has always lived in Khartoum. On Dec. 28 NISS officials arrested a visiting South Sudanese pastor from Juba, the Rev. Yat Michael, after Sunday worship at Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church on Dec. 21. He is still in custody.
Authorities have repeatedly refused to allow Pastor Michael’s family to visit him since his arrest, sources said.
Related article: PCUSA advocating for the safety and release of two pastors detained in Sudan