The Missing Context
Read through the Christian Today story on David Fulton's release from prison. Are you happy the 61-year-old chaplain is back in his homeland? Of course. But what do phrases like "found guilty of sedition," and "convicted of forgery" suggest about Fulton's moral history? After reading through the scanty details of Fulton's release, I had a few questions. So I did a little digging.
Context is everything.
Turns out, the British missionary was forcibly separated from his wife and children, incarcerated on the strength of mere accusation, starved, subjected to hard labor, and dragged through judicial procedures that openly scorned non-essentials like documented evidence or eye-witnesses. His wife, Fiona (who worked with the terminally ill) was also arrested and imprisoned, ruthlessly separated from their two year old daughter.
You see, in The Gambia, submission to Islam and President Yahya Jammeh's police henchmen come first. Fulton's act of sedition was critically discussing some of Gambia's problems in an email. Problems? Gambia? Outrageous! (oh wait, do you mean things like poverty, female genital mutilation, police corruption, terrible roads, lack of medical care, education, etc?). Such sentiments, declared Gambia's law-enforcers, are seditious hate-crimes (keep in mind, this is a government condemned by the U.S. for human rights abuses, and that routinely uses murder, arson, unlawful arrests and death threats to silence fact-reporting native journalists).
No news story I found listed a comprehensive timeline of events (the Fulton's church website does here), although the Telegraph.uk.co did a better job with the forgery/sedition charges. VOM provided excellent details, but not a consistent narrative. Unfortunately, very few publications even asked what the last twenty months have been like for the Fultons. As near as I can figure, the timeline goes like this:
On Saturday, November 29, 2008, David and Fiona are arrested, unaware of the charges filed against them.
On Thursday, December 4, the charges of sedition are formally leveled against them. They plead not guilty. David is placed in a 5" by 5" cell in the filthy, high security Mile II prison. Conditions are appalling (19 prisoners have died there in the past 3 years). Fiona is placed in a cell at Banjul Police Station, separated from her 2 year-old adopted daughter Elizabeth. Bail is impossible - four Gambian property owners must vouch for them. They are unable to meet the bail requirements.
On Tuesday, December 16, the Fulton's trial is post-poned until Wednesday, December 24. They still do not know the full nature of the evidence brought against them.
On Wednesday, December 24, the Fulton's appear in court. Their lawyer advises them to plead guilty of sedition in order to get a lighter sentence. They do, but on December 30 they are sentenced to one year hard labor and a fine of about £6250 in sterling.
On the 30th of December, 2009, Fiona is released and returns to Britain. Her husband remains in jail, because he had an unauthorized license plate for his car (yes, that's the forgery charge, although it's common practice in Gambia). He did not deny that he printed the license plate, and was convicted of forgery - 3 year additional sentence. He appealed the conviction. While the courts delayed, he was also accused of impersonating a military officer.
These charges were eventually dropped because the prosecution didn't have any witnesses, and on Wednesday, September 8th, David Fulton was released and returned to the U.K.
The British government appears to have done little to effect his release; the Fulton's appear to be free-lance missionaries associated with a Pentacostal church; their oldest daughter Iona gave birth while her parents were in jail; etc. etc. etc. There are a whole TON of details missing from this story (and pictures...all the stories are running the same family photo pre-incarceration), and I guess I'm curious as to why this story got the superficial treatment from actual reporters.
Oh wait.
The Gambia is over 90% Muslim, and Sharia is the law of the land. Is it possible that the media left this story alone because the Fulton's real crime was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in an oppressive country dominated by Islam, and it's just not hip to criticize Islam? I'm not sure, but I know that context is everything.
