16092: (Craig) Article: American Missionary Expelled From Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>


American Missionary Expelled From Haiti
July 7, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:44 p.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- An American Protestant
missionary was expelled from Haiti Monday following a
conviction for illegally importing arms.

James Glenn White, 47, was arrested May 9 while waiting for
a shipment from the United States. Police said they found
an AR-15 assault rifle, a pistol and a machine to make
bullets in a refrigerator that White was to pick up that
day.

White -- who ran Sharing the Vision, an independent mission
in north-coast Cap-Haitien -- pleaded innocent Thursday in
court, saying he had told police before the shipment
arrived it would contain weapons belonging to a friend who
was planning to join his mission.

He said police told him he should apply for a permit after
the shipment arrived.

But a judge found White guilty Thursday, ordering him to
pay a fine of $1,000 and leave the Caribbean country. White
had faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

White and his wife, Theresa, left Monday afternoon for
Miami and plan to spend several weeks in Florida before
deciding what to do next.

White, originally from New Castle, Ind., had lived in Haiti
for seven years. He said Monday that he didn't know why his
friend sent him the weapons, which came in a shipment of
the man's personal belongings.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-American-Expelled.html?ex=1058665160&ei=1&en=5557f3217f4461b3
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company