Miracle baby preacher closer to boot

A preacher from a church in Manchester who claimed he could help infertile couples have ‘miracle babies’ through the power of prayer has been warned that he is one step closer to being extradited to Kenya on five child kidnap charges.

Gilbert Deya, 55, opened a church in Warwick Street, Hulme in 2003 and attracted large congregations.

But the self-style archbishop and his Gilbert Deya Ministries became the focus of a BBc investigation over the ‘miracle babies’.

It was claimed women had gone to Kenya, Mr Deya’s homeland, and returned within days with babies said to be gifts from God. But it was alleged that they women were not pregnant when they left.

Yesterday, Mr Deya was told that he had lost all the legal arguments in his battle to stay in Britain.

District Judge Caroline Tubbs, sitting at London’s City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, told him: “The charges are serious and emotive, concerning, as they do, very young children allegedly removed from their birth parents.

“The case has received considerable publicity in Kenya.

“I am told over 50 people have come forward for DNA testing by the Kenyan authorities in relation to the recovered children.

“Whilst I accept there may be strong feelings in relation to the charges among prison inmates, police and prison officials and the public at large I find there is nothing put before me in evidence to support the assertion that Mr Deya is likely to be additionally punished by physical violence because of his political views.”

The matter is now being sent to the Home Secretary who makes the final decisions on extraditions to non-EU countries.

Confirmed

Deya’s legal team confirmed they will make representations to the Home Secretary and appeal the decision in the High Court.

A Kenyan arrest warrant was issued in Nairobi in September 2005.

Deya is wanted by the Kenyan authorities accused of stealing five children aged between 22 months and four-and-half years.

The children disappeared between May 1999 and August 2004 and Deya and his wife Mary falsely claimed to the be their natural parents, the court heard.

She is serving a two-year sentence in Kenya in connection with child stealing.

Deya had urged the court to allow him to stay in the UK, arguing that his outspoken political views would make him a target for political violence and that he would never receive a fair trial.

He would be made a scapegoat for his condemnation of Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki and his cabinet as corrupt and would face corporal punishment, it was claimed.

In addition, forcing him to suffer the squalor of Kenyan prisons would be against his human rights, he claimed.

Conditions

In rejecting his claims that he was at a “real risk of ill-treatment” the judge ruled: “All prison conditions in Kenya are poor, with overcrowding, poor sanitation, unhealthy conditions and easy spreading of communicable diseases.

“Mr Deya, in himself, has no particular vulnerabilities.

“He is Kenyan citizen, aged 55 years, well nourished and in apparent good physical health with no problems of intellect, language or culture to contend with.

“He also has access to considerable financial resources and enjoys support from at least some parts of the free Kenyan press.”

Another claim that was rejected was that the Kenyan government was acting in bad faith and trying to mislead the British court for its own political reasons.

It had been argued that once back on home soil, Deya may be tried and punished for a more serious murder charge which had allegedly mysteriously disappeared from official documents.

Prosecutors raised doubt in court about whether the documents were genuine and the strength of this claim.

The judge described this as “a very serious allegation of bad faith” which was not backed up with any evidence to suggest that Kenya was trying to breach its internationally agreed obligations amounting to an abuse of process.

Deya was released on conditional bail.

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