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
16 October 2019
DONBAS: Luhansk: Community work, fines, property seizure
A Baptist leader in Krasnodon hopes to overturn a punishment of 20 hours' community work when the case resumes at the Supreme Court in Luhansk on 21 October. Krasnodon court punished Pastor Vladimir Rytikov for leading an unapproved Sunday worship meeting which police raided in April. Another pastor was fined in October for leading worship in August, which police also raided.
14 October 2019
UZBEKISTAN: Muslim human rights defender's sentence imminent?
The Prosecutor asked Tashkent City Court to give 48-year-old Tulkun Astanov a five-year suspended sentence, with a verdict expected on or after 18 October. The Muslim human rights defender is being punished for visiting the state-controlled Muftiate to discuss hijab bans and other restrictions on freedom of religion and belief.
11 October 2019
RUSSIA: Jehovah's Witness criminal cases - list
Full list of 245 Jehovah's Witnesses across Russia facing criminal prosecution on extremism-related charges for exercising freedom of religion or belief. Of these, 33 are in pre-trial detention. Trials of 25 are already underway. Eight more have already been convicted. Raids, arrests and interrogations continue.
10 October 2019
TRANSDNIESTER: Conscientious objectors banned from leaving
Three Jehovah's Witnesses returning to Transdniester to visit family were called up for military service in May, and banned from leaving. "I've been living with this uncertainty for nearly half a year, unable to leave, work or relax," Mikhail Yeremeyev told Forum 18. Proposed Alternative Service Law amendments would subjugate alternative service applications to the personnel needs of the military.
4 October 2019
RUSSIA: Jailings "equate peaceful believers with dangerous criminals"
The jailing of six Jehovah's Witnesses in Saratov for up to three and a half years "equates peaceful believers with dangerous criminals", Jehovah's Witnesses complain. The Prosecutor's Office did not respond as to why it considered these men dangerous and should be jailed. A Khabarovsk court sentenced another man to assigned work for discussing Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
27 September 2019
AZERBAIJAN: Large fine amid continuing religious censorship
A Baku court fined Kamran Huseynzade four months' average wages for selling religious books outside a mosque without state permission. The head of the censorship department at the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations lamented that only 42 of 100 places selling religious literature have the required state licence. All published and imported religious literature is subject to prior compulsory censorship.
17 September 2019
RUSSIA: Mosque demolished, church to follow?
Officials repeatedly rebuffed attempts to legalise ownership of the land where Good News Pentecostal Church in Samara has worshipped for two decades. Officials want to demolish the church, at the congregation's expense. A court hearing is due on 25 September. In May, officials bulldozed a mosque built on farmland near Chernyakhovsk in Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, claiming it violated planning regulations.
12 September 2019
BELARUS: New possible fines for unapproved worship
On 18 July, criminal punishments for unregistered religious activities, including worship meetings, ended, but were replaced by summary fines of up to five weeks' average wage. "Some church members will be scared and stop coming to worship services or, God forbid, the authorities will impose a restraining order on the church's property," the leader of an unregistered Christian community commented.
11 September 2019
TAJIKISTAN: Pensioner jailed until August 2026
In a closed hearing in prison in Khujand, 69-year-old Jehovah's Witness Shamil Khakimov was on 10 September given a strict regime jail sentence of seven years, six months for allegedly "inciting religious hatred". On release in August 2026, aged 74, Khakimov would be banned from exercising his freedom of religion and belief until August 2029. "I am guilty of nothing," he told the court and is expected to appeal.
6 September 2019
RUSSIA: Losing places of worship
Complex, sometimes contradictory, and often inconsistently applied legislation can lead religious communities to lose their places of worship. Officials barred a Baptist community in Novorossiysk from using its church "for religious purposes", despite the fact that it has worshipped on the same site for two decades. Local authorities are often unwilling to permit the construction of purpose-built churches and mosques.
5 September 2019
TURKMENISTAN: Fourth known 2019 conscientious objector jailing
An Ashgabat court jailed 20-year-old Jehovah's Witness Azat Ashirov for two years on 31 July for refusing compulsory military service on grounds of conscience. He had set out his objections in writing and offered to perform an alternative civilian service. Instead prosecutors claimed he had evaded his obligation fraudulently. Seven Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors are now jailed, four of them in 2019.
27 August 2019
BELARUS: "Unaffordable" police fees stop Greek Catholic pilgrimage
Under a Council of Ministers Decree, public events require fees to police, health workers and cleaners. The Interior Ministry later said fees would not apply to religious organisations' events at designated venues, such as churches and cemeteries. However, Greek Catholic leaders cancelled what would have been their 25th annual pilgrimage from Vitebsk to Polotsk in mid-July because of "unaffordable" police fees.