PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) - Trinidad's largest Hindu organization said Tuesday it was urging the prime minister to bar American TV evangelist Benny Hinn from visiting the country. Sat Maharaj, secretary-general of Sanatan Dharma Maha Saba, said Hinn - who plans to visit the diverse Caribbean nation from May 19-21 - was a fraud.

"We need to alert the population that he is a fake healer," Maharaj said.

The organization has taken out full-page ads in local papers claiming Hinn's revivals are illegal because he makes money by faith healing - which is against the law in Trinidad.

Hinn's spokesman, Ronn Torossian, declined to comment Tuesday.

Benny Hinn Ministries, based in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, is estimated to raise more than $100 million a year. The televangelist travels the world hosting "Miracle Crusades" in stadiums, and claims to heal the sick while converting nonbelievers to his strain of Pentecostal Christianity.

Hinn held a series of prayer meetings in the twin-island nation in 1999. A U.S. State Department report on international religious freedom released that year said Hinn's conversions ignited criticism throughout Trinidad and Tobago. According to the report, Hinn appeared on his television show and said he had cast many "devils" out of Trinidad.

EDITOR'S NOTE

According to industry trade pub O'Dwyer's, 5W PR is one of the fastest growing PR firms in the US. That said, we have yet to comfirm whether Torossian himself has been healed or whether the devils have been cast out of 5W. We hope to have that information and provide updates as this story develops.