In our last issue, we reported that Sabine Dressler-Kromminga (above) and Klaus Kuhlmann, ministers of the Evangelical-Reformed congregation in Braunschweig, Germany, were to appear in court, charged with "refugee smuggling". For four years their congregation had given shelter to the Bashirs, a family of refugees from Pakistan, whose application for asylum in Germany had been rejected. This was seen by the authorities as an offence against the Aliens Act.

The Bashirs have now moved to a new life in Canada (see separate story) and Braunschweig public prosecutor Hans Meyer-Ulex has agreed to drop the case against the two pastors.

Not without administering a slap on the wrist, however. The two ministers have been required to pay DM2,000 each - in one case, to Amnesty International, in the other, to Pro-Asyl, an organization working on behalf of refugees.

"It's a kind of fine," Sabine Dressler-Kromminga comments. "We could have challenged it in the higher courts, but life's too short."

The charge against the ministers was described by defence lawyer Michael Anding as "criminalizing church asylum". What the congregation saw as helping in a case of need was viewed by the public prosecutor's office as a deliberate and sustained breaking of the law.

The church council regards the successful departure of the Bashir family for Canada as vindicating the congregation's view.