Oslo Attempt to Shut Down Preachers Fails

4 Arrested, but Charges Dropped by Authorities

Posted: December 14, 2009
11:16 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Four Christian ministers who traveled to Oslo to deliver the message of Christ at the festivities surrounding the Nobel prizes were arrested over the weekend but then released after authorities decided to drop all charges.
 
Word of the effort to reach out to the Norwegian city while President Obama was in attendance to accept the Nobel Peace Prize comes from Joel Thornton of the International Human Rights Group.

He worked previously on behalf of preacher Larry Keffer, who operates through the Biblical Research Center in Tampa, Fla.
 
Keffer had been arrested at least twice for talking about Jesus in Oslo, where Obama traveled to accept the prize for which he was nominated only days after he took office.

Keffer, whose previous arrests came while he was working with Norwegian evangelist Petar Keseljevic and whose cases still are being challenged, was working with other American evangelists, including Keseljevic, Ruben Israel and Larry Craft this week in Oslo.

The team had been ordered to leave the city center area in Oslo and stay away or face arrest late last week. Then as they were preaching near the entrance of a Will Smith concert over the weekend, all four were taken into custody by police.
 
"Ruben and Larry Keffer were arrested after a 10-minute discussion with the police," Thornton reported to WND. "Then Larry Craft continued to preach while Petar Keseljevic videotaped.

"Craft and Petar were then arrested even though Petar was not preaching or sharing his faith," Thornton said.

"The four were held in jail for over eight hours. They were given a chance to pay fines and be released without the need for a hearing. They all refused to pay the fine," Thornton reported.

"The state's attorney left for about 30 minutes. When he returned he informed the men that the charges were being dropped and all evidence of the arrest was being removed from the record," he said.

"It seems convenient that the police got the evangelists off the streets during a large public event, but wanted to keep no record of their actions, particularly when you consider that this type of behavior is a violation of Norwegian and European law," Thornton said.

WND reported when police ordered the evangelists away from Oslo's city center and threatened them with arrest, late last week.

"They brought banners with messages about abortion, change, homosexuality, and Old Testament Scriptures regarding the effects of wickedness upon any nation. One of the banners stated that Hitler was wrong for killing the Jews, and abortion is also wrong," Thornton said.

Almost immediately, police agents told the evangelists to remove their banners and their signs, then move across the street, even though the nation's laws formally recognize freedom of speech.

"A few minutes later the Oslo police again approached the evangelists and ordered them to lower their voices. Again, the evangelists complied with the order of the police.

"At this point the Oslo police ordered the evangelists to stop sharing their message or be arrested based on the Oslo police law. Oslo police stated that they were ordering them to leave because they were afraid of a riot – even though there was no one in the crowd who was upset about the message being delivered by the evangelists," Thornton reported.

Then, as the evangelists prepared to leave, they were told they were banned from the center of Oslo for 24 hours and would be arrested if they returned under any circumstances.

At the American embassy, they were told they could call a telephone line for citizens if they wanted to lodge a complaint. Thornton said Runa Bunaes, the chief of operations for the Oslo police, confirmed she would stand by the orders of the officers on the streets.