Rwandan police on Monday arrested an American pastor who was to hold a news conference in the capital and whose radio station in the country was shut down by authorities last year.
Gregg Schoof was arrested for “disturbing public order,” police spokesman John Bosco Kabera told Reuters.
Rwandan authorities last year closed Schoof’s radio station, Amazing Grace, after it aired a sermon that women’s rights activists said “spread hate against women.” The sermon described women as “evil.”
On Sunday, Schoof emailed Rwandan journalists inviting them to a news conference he said he wanted to host before leaving the country.
“Pastor Gregg Schoof will have a final press conference to update all about the radio being closed, court cases, and other things,” the email read.
Police arrested him at the venue where the news conference was to occur.
The police spokesman said Schoof was handed over to the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) “for further management.”
The RIB spokesman did not answer requests for comment.
Before his arrest, Schoof handed journalists a press release that said this month his church would move to Uganda because Rwandan immigration had denied his visa renewal application.
REUTERS