Ål: Kathrin Espegard (33), married and living in Ål, has personally experienced a brutal religious persecution. In 1987, in her native country Austria, she was kidnapped, bound and mentally tortured due to the fact that she had contact with the religious community known as “Smith’s Friends”. She was finally able to flee.

Later, in Ål, she was visited by two German-speaking men. However, this time she responded more quickly and went into hiding. Kathrin and her husband Oddvar Espegard contacted the police who in turn warned Interpol. The case ended with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs exerting enough pressure on the Austrian authorities to cause the case, which had already been dropped, to be taken up once again. Recently her mother was convicted of kidnapping by the Austrian Supreme Court.