Jesus' conviction 'null, void'

2007-08-29 14:33

Nairobi - A case on behalf of Jesus Christ has come knocking on Kenya's High Court door, lodged by a fervent Christian group who wants his conviction declared "null and void" and his Crucifixion "illegal."

Though cases to right historical wrongs were far from unusual around the world, Kenya's Friends of Jesus (FOJ) had reached back two millennia in what might redefine the quest for closure.

The petition was filed on Monday with the court registrar, raising a novel set of jurisprudence quandaries - not the least of which involved the statute of limitations and whether the high court had jurisdiction over the "Son of God".

It was not certain when a ruling would be handed down.

High court spokesperson Dola Indindis said but, FOJ actually "might have a right in court because the issues raised touch on human rights and the high court has unlimited powers on that line".

Worldly fortune

Little is known about FOJ, which did not proselytise and was reticent about its numbers, saying they could not be counted in figures, but in "the many who are ready to heed the Jesus teaching and be his friend".

It was a Nairobi group that included lawyers and wealthy businessmen who viewed their worldly fortune in this east African country, where half the population lived below the poverty line as a gift from God.

Indindis said that they wanted "the court to declare Jesus' trial null and void ... because the (ancient) court that convicted Him was not properly constituted, the prosecutors violated the law of the time and the trial was a sham".

The FOJ's lawyer Humprey Odanga said Jesus' Crucifixion was a wrongful punishment for a trial based on charges of "blaspheming the Holy Spirit" and should be corrected by modern law.

Jesus 'not a criminal'

The case had triggered a buzz in Kenyan legal circles that sounded at times stranger than fiction, with Kenyan attorneys conceding that - in pure legal terms - the FOJ's complaint was legitimate but disagreeing on whether it was admissible in Kenyan courts.

Nairobi constitutional lawyer Albert Kuloba, for one, said the "FOJ should have filed it in the International Criminal Court (in The Hague) which has the mandate to hear that case."

He said: "The Kenyan courts do not have jurisdiction because the 'course-of-action' never arose within its jurisdiction. And even if they have jurisdiction, the application is time-barred."

However, the FOJ was determined. One member said: "We need the court to clarify, for the record, that Jesus was not a criminal. He advocated for the rule of law. Do you mean to worship a convicted criminal?"

And the group has carefully laid out its case.

Odanga said under the Torah, or Jewish law based notably on the Biblical Old Testament books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, if a man blasphemes the Holy Spirit he must be stoned to death.

- AFP