f18 Logo

The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

TURKMENISTAN: Jailings of conscientious objectors resume

Two conscientious objectors, both Jehovah's Witnesses, were jailed for one year in January. One had just completed a corrective labour sentence. These are the first jailings of conscientious objectors since 2014. No prisoners of conscience are known to have been freed under the Novruz amnesty.

UZBEKISTAN: Officials bully child, "show trial", fines

The authorities in Uzbekistan's Navoi Region keep raiding and punishing local Baptists "to stop them meeting for worship and peaceful religious activity". Baptists also said that the authorities compel the relatives of ethnic Uzbek Christians to try to stop family members from meeting co-believers.

KAZAKHSTAN: One church, two prosecutions

Shymkent's New Life Protestant Church was fined for having three not five fire detectors in a storage building and banned for one month. The ban will go into force if the church's appeal fails. But the court acquitted a church member of helping an apparent police agent provocateur download a Bible onto her phone.

KAZAKHSTAN: 24 criminal convictions in 2017, more imminent?

Zholbarys Zhumanazarov – jailed for one year in Almaty Region for alleged membership of the Tabligh Jamaat Muslim missionary movement – became the 24th known individual given a criminal conviction in 2017 for exercising freedom of religion and belief. The criminal trial of three more begins in Karaganda on 12 March.

TAJIKISTAN: Conscientious objection appeal to UN Human Rights Committee?

Prisoner of conscience Daniil Islamov is preparing to appeal for the last time to Tajikistan's Supreme Court against a six-month jail term for refusing compulsory military service. If this appeal is rejected, he is likely to appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee.

TAJIKISTAN: Almost 2,000 mosques closed in 2017

Tajikistan has claimed to have closed almost 2,000 mosques in 2017. Officials claimed they were closed at the request of local residents, but have not been able to explain why they only allow mosques with a capacity far below the possible numbers of worshippers.

TAJIKISTAN: Amendments impose even tighter state control

Religion Law amendments allow the state to restrict freedom of religion or belief on illegitimate grounds, increase religious communities' reporting obligations, require state approval for all imams, and increase state control on religious education. "The Law represents total control and is unjust", human rights defender Faizinisso Vokhidova stated.

KYRGYZSTAN: Burial blocked with violence "resolved peacefully"?

An imam admitted to Forum 18 he had, accompanied by a "mob" of young men and officials, blocked a Christian's burial in the state-owned cemetery in Barskoon in Issyk-Kul Region. He then denied all responsibility and tried to blame everything on villagers.

KAZAKHSTAN: 284 administrative prosecutions in 2017 - list

Full list of 284 known administrative prosecutions in 2017 to punish exercising freedom of religion or belief. Of these, 263 ended up with punishments, including fines, a short-term jail term, deportations, worship bans, seizures and destruction of religious literature.

KAZAKHSTAN: 284 known administrative prosecutions in 2017

In 284 known administrative prosecutions in 2017, 263 individuals, religious communities, charities and companies were punished for worship meetings, offering or importing religious literature and pictures (including online), sharing or teaching faith, posting material online, praying in mosques, allowing a parent to bring a child to meetings, inadequate security measures or failing to pay earlier fines.

KYRGYZSTAN: Church arson follows long-standing government failures

On 2 January the Baptist Church in the north-eastern town of Kaji-Sai was burnt out in an arson attack. Baptists think this happened because nothing was done to punish the perpetrators of previous threats and attacks. Police claim to be trying to solve the crime, but are also investigating the victims.

KAZAKHSTAN: Six await trial; cancer sufferer not freed

Three of six Muslims arrested in October 2017 have had pre-trial detention extended for two more months. All six face up to two years' imprisonment if convicted of involvement in missionary movement Tabligh Jamaat. A second United Nations body has called for Jehovah's Witness prisoner of conscience, cancer-sufferer Teymur Akhmedov to be freed.