The verdict in the long-running trial of retiring Korean missionary Park Tae Yeon (70) was delivered by a judge in Khabarovsk Court on 8 October. Missionary Park was given a sentence of 5 years 8 months on two immigration-related charges. An appeal to a higher court against the conviction and sentence is planned.
“Missionary Park was taken to a pre-trial detention centre immediately after the hearing, where she will remain pending the results of the appeal,” said Voice of the Martyrs Korea CEO Pastor Eric Foley, who first reported the case and has been advocating on her behalf. “Until now she had been held in a detention centre for foreign nationals. If the higher court upholds the sentence without modification, Missionary Park will most likely be sent to a women’s correctional colony located in the village of Zaozernoye, Khabarovsk Krai, just beyond the city of Khabarovsk.”
The court did not impose a fine and as a result, the seizure of Missionary Park’s home in Russia was lifted.
Missionary Park has been held in a detention centre for foreign nationals since early February but this time will not be credited toward her sentence. Pastor Foley said, “Authorities say that her stay in the detention centre for foreign nationals was based on an administrative violation, namely that her permitted period of stay in Russia had expired. However, this violation was of course due to authorities detaining her. These will be among the many important factors to be noted in the appeal.”
Missionary Park’s trial began on 28 July and opened with positive character references on her behalf. It was adjourned in mid-August and resumed in mid-September. Pastor Foley stated that this hearing included “aggressive questioning… about various religious groups, including Child Evangelism Fellowship, the Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals), and a few others – what they do, how they differ, what are their core beliefs, and so on. They asked what specifically the groups pray about, what they preach, what rules they instil, and what the spreading of evangelical Christian doctrine entails. They asked what the ‘Great Commission’ is.”
Background: “Married to Russia”
Park Tae Yeon had bought a plane ticket to return from Khabarovsk to South Korea to retire after 33 years of what she described as being “married to Russia” when she was arrested on 15 January on immigration-related charges. Voice of the Martyrs Korea said the charges were intended to divert attention from a basic violation of religious freedoms.
On 4 February Missionary Park was taken away from her home by masked law enforcement agents who refused to say where she was going. A local pastor was able to work with lawyers to find her at a detention centre for foreigners where she had been taken because her visa had expired on 24 January.
It is believed that Missionary Park was targeted following an investigation by law enforcement agencies into religious camps for children in Khabarovsk which claimed that “ideas alien to Russian traditional values were imposed on children under the pretext of education and training” and that the ultimate goal was to take the children to South Korea.
Dr Hyun Sook Foley of Voce of the Martyrs Korea called these allegations “ridiculous” and added, “Ms Park Tae Yeon has been living with a sincere love for the country of Russia and its people since she arrived there in 1993. She has no prior criminal history. She has lived her whole life as a single person and has devoted herself to the locals for 33 years, to the point where she says she is married to Russia. She has practised a life of caring for her neighbours, and her pure spirit of service has become an example for many people around her. Park Tae Yeon is a transparent and good person like a child, without political ideology or impure purpose.”
(Voice of the Martyrs Korea)