Cuban Pastor and Wife Sentenced to Jail for Homeschooling Children
- Updated May 19, 2017
A Cuban evangelical pastor was sentenced to prison after he removed his children from the state-run communist schools to homeschool them.
Homeschooling advocates are asking the Trump administration to grant Pastor Ramon Rigal asylum in the United States, according to The Christian Post.
Rigal was arrested in February and then sentenced in April to one year in prison for homeschooling his own children. His wife, Adya, was sentenced to one year of house arrest.
This week, a crowd of about two dozen people rallied outside the Embassy of Cuba in Washington to support Rigal. The group tried to deliver a CitizenGo petition of about 31,000 signatures, but embassy officials refused to accept it.
The right to homeschool children is "a human right that is recognized around the world as a fundamental human right," said Mike Donnelly, an attorney and director of global outreach for the Home School Legal Defense Association.
Rigal was able to contact the HSLDA, who are now advocating on his behalf.
Will Estrada, director of federal relations for HSLDA, said that if the Cuban government continues to treat Christians like that then the president should "tear-up the normalization of relations that the Obama administration did and change things."
"We should not be rewarding a communist country if they continue to crack down on religious minorities," he said.
Publication date: May 19, 2017
