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Deya Looking At Asylum in the UK
The preacher at the centre of the “miracle babies” controversy says he will consider applying for political asylum in the UK in a bid to stop him being extradited to Kenya.
Archbishop Gilbert Deya, 52, who continues to insist that he is not a child trafficker, says he might undertake seeking refugee status if advised so by his lawyers.
The issue of Mr Deya and his ministry has become as high profile in the UK as it has in Kenya over the past month and the preacher’s lawyers say he will not come to Nairobi because he will not receive a fair trial.
Human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, who is defending Mr Deya, said that he was not concerned with the issue of “miracle babies” or the allegations of child trafficking against his client.
“Our sole concern is the issue of extradition to Kenya,” he said. Mr Deya claims that he will not receive a fair trial if returned to Kenya because of prejudicial publicity and persecution.”
Mr Deya said he had been condemned because of his friendship with former President Moi. He claims that he is “a respected person in Kenya” and that it is the Kenyan government which is “fully corrupt”.
Moreover, he adds that he has already been “judged by the media as a child trafficker, which is slave trade.”
But he said the allegations were false and that “miracles have happened. God has used me and God cannot use a criminal,” he said.
As the man who heads the 36,000-member strong Gilbert Deya Ministries, which is based in south London, continues to insist that the charges against him are false, it has been revealed that the authorities in the UK are closing in on his organisation.
Already the Charity Commission has frozen the accounts of the GDM which had an income of nearly £900,000 in 2002 and ordered an investigation into its funding.
The Charity Commissioners are looking into the GDM not only over child protection issues, but also the use of exorcism on children.
Both the Church of England and the Royal College of Obstetrics have also asked for a probe of Archbishop Deya’s claims.
The Metropolitan Police, who are reported to be co-operating with Kenyan police on the matter, are also investigating the issue of child trafficking between Kenya and the UK.
But Mr Deya himself insists the charges are not true.
“I have never taken women from the UK to the back streets of Nairobi,” he said. “These are baseless allegations. I have been a star preacher on television. How can I go to the maternity hospital with my wife and steal a baby? My wife and I are innocent.”
DNA tests on 20 of the so-called “miracle babies” showed that none of them were related to their parents.
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