Police continued to pressure Council of Churches Baptist communities in late 2025 to register with the state. Officers raided their community in the village of Balpyk-Bi in the south-eastern Jetisu Region on 26 October and 19 November. Police came to their church in Shu in the southern Jambyl Region on 29 September. Officers said that a woman had complained that the church was holding lessons for children. She later admitted that she had written the complaint "under pressure and dictation from the police". Police interrogated a pastor's child at the child's school in the parents' absence. Questions were about the church's activity.

Police and other officials repeatedly insist that Council of Churches Baptist communities must register. Council of Churches Baptists do not seek state permission to exercise their freedom of religion or belief (see below).

The 19 November raid on the church in Balpyk-Bi in Koksu District came during its meeting for worship. "When the meeting was over, the officials demanded that all those present write statements," church members noted about the November raid. "They posted a guard on the doors and allowed no one to leave. When the church members refused to write statements, the officials summoned a vehicle and took about ten people to the local police station" (see below).

Officials drew up records of an offence against at least nine church members under Administrative Code Article 490, Part 1, Point 1 ("Violating the requirements of the Religion Law for conducting religious rites, ceremonies and/or meetings"). At hearings in December, Taldykorgan Inter-District Specialised Administrative Court closed all the cases for "absence of the element of an offence" (see below).

Koksu District Police refused to explain why its officers took part in the raids: "We can't give any information by phone." Dinara Moldabayeva of the Religious Affairs Department of Zhetisu Region Akimat insisted that it was not involved in the raid. "We don't work with the police and they don't consult us," she told Forum 18. "We attended the court hearings and explained that the church has committed no violations" (see below).

Police came to the Council of Churches Baptist church in Shu in the southern Jambyl Region on 29 September 2025. Officers said that a woman had complained that the church was holding lessons for children where church members taught them Bible verses by heart and morality based on the Bible. The woman – who worked in a school attended by the children of a pastor – later admitted that she had written the complaint "under pressure and dictation from the police" (see below).

On the day of the police visit, police also went to the school and instructed the head teacher to summon a child of the pastor. "She questioned the child in the absence of parents," church members complained. "Police officers asked all the questions they wanted to know about church meetings" (see below).

Church members note that the police have photographs of all the children who attend children's events at the church. "The entire current situation is causing great concern among believers," they say. "It seems that someone is very unhappy with the believers' meetings." Police raided the church in spring 2024 and handed down fines (see below).

The duty officer at Shu District Police refused to answer any of Forum 18's questions about the police action against the church. He also refused to put Forum 18 through to the head, Bolat Musakulov (see below).

At the end of the appeal proceedings on 23 December 2025, Turkistan Regional Court upheld the appeal by Jehovah's Witness (and Uzbek citizen) Daniyar Tursynbayev and overturned the fine and deportation order imposed the previous month. This means he will not be separated from his wife and infant child. On 21 November 2025, Kentau Town Court had found him guilty for writing about his faith on Telegram Stories between September 2023 and December 2024 (see below).

On 13 August 2025, Police in Kentau in the southern Turkistan Region took Tursynbayev to the police station. Officers seized his mobile phone and passport. Four officers – reportedly led by Lieutenant Colonel Baglan Yankin - subjected him to repeated torture and murder threats. After six hours of interrogation and torture, Tursynbayev admitted he had conducted "illegal missionary activity". The same day, police raided a religious meeting of the Kentau Jehovah's Witness community. The police torture of Tursynbayev remains unpunished (see below).

Officials at the Culture and Information Ministry's Religious Affairs Committee in Astana – including its head Anuar Khatiyev; deputy head Adilbek Seifullin; and Beimbet Manetov, head of the Department of Law Enforcement Practice in the Field of Religious Activities - did not answer their phones each time Forum 18 called on 8 January 2026. The secretary said she was unable to answer any questions and that Khatiyev was out of the office.

Tight controls on exercise of freedom of religion or belief

The regime imposes tight restrictions on the exercise of freedom of religion or belief. Against legally-binding international human rights obligations, the Religion Law allows only state-registered religious communities to hold meetings for worship which must be at state-approved locations. The Muslim community faces even tighter restrictions: only mosques subject to the state-controlled Muslim Board are allowed to exist.

All other meetings for worship risk punishment. Individuals, charities and companies face fines under Administrative Code Article 490, Part 1, Point 1 ("Violating the requirements of the Religion Law for conducting religious rites, ceremonies and/or meetings") for holding meetings for worship without state permission or allowing such meetings to be held in their premises.

Officials and politicians have repeatedly expressed an intention to make state controls over the exercise of freedom of religion or belief tighter. The head of the National Security Committee (NSC) secret police, Yermek Sagimbayev, told deputies of the non-freely-elected parliament in October 2023: "The initiative on the need to harshen legislation in the area of regulating religious activity has more than once been discussed at a government level."

In early 2024, the regime drafted a wide-ranging Amending Law to amend the 2011 Religion Law and a range of other Laws and Codes. The Law was never adopted.

However, the regime appears to remain committed to legal changes to restrict further the exercise of freedom of religion or belief. Speaking in Burabai on 14 March 2025, President Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev appeared to support concerns from a number of politicians over what they considered "the growing influence of non-traditional religious movements among young people".

"Freedom of religion is guaranteed in Kazakhstan, but disorder and permissiveness are unacceptable," Tokayev declared in remarks posted on the presidential website. "Destructive movements and ideologies alien to our culture must certainly be curbed."

Tokayev added: "The most important mission of religion is the consolidation of the nation. Documents regulating the activities of religious associations should facilitate this goal. This issue must be comprehensively studied and legislation adapted to the new conditions."

As of 9 January 2026, no proposed amendments to the Religion Law have yet been submitted to the Mazhilis, the lower house of parliament, according to its website.

Police raid worship service, at least nine court cases dismissed

Two local police officers arrived at the end of the Sunday worship service on 26 October 2025 of the Council of Churches Baptist community in the village of Balpyk-Bi in Koksu District of the south-eastern Jetisu Region. The officers insisted that the church must register, local Baptists noted.

Council of Churches Baptists do not seek state permission to exercise their freedom of religion or belief, as is their right under international human rights law.

Eight officials – in uniform and in civilian clothes – raided the church's 19 November 2025 meeting for worship. "One of them immediately started filming those present," church members complained. The officials again demanded that the church register.

"When the meeting was over, the officials demanded that all those present write statements," church members noted. "They posted a guard on the doors and allowed no one to leave. When the church members refused to write statements, the officials summoned a vehicle and took about ten people to the local police station."

Officials drew up records of an offence against at least nine church members under Administrative Code Article 490, Part 1, Point 1 ("Violating the requirements of the Religion Law for conducting religious rites, ceremonies and/or meetings"). This punishes those who hold meetings for worship without state permission or allow such meetings to be held in their premises. Punishments are a warning or a fine – on individuals of 25 Monthly Financial Indicators (MFIs) (2 weeks' average wage) and on legal entities of 100 MFIs.

On 19 December, Taldykorgan Inter-District Specialised Administrative Court began hearing the cases against six church members, including Aleksandr Klad, according to court records. "The Judge announced that some questions require additional consideration and adjourned the court hearing," local Baptists noted.

The court held hearings in nine cases on 24 December. "The local police officer and religious affairs officials could not prove that the accused had committed an offence," Baptists said. The Judge ruled that all nine cases should be closed for "absence of the element of an offence".

Forum 18 reached Koksu District Police on 8 January 2026. It asked the duty officer why police had raided the church in Balpyk-Bi, pressured church members to register and prepared administrative cases. The duty officer consulted the District Police Deputy Head, before responding: "We can't give any information by phone."

Dinara Moldabayeva of the Religious Affairs Department of Zhetisu Region Akimat insisted that it was not involved in the raid. "We don't work with the police and they don't consult us," she told Forum 18 from Taldykorgan on 8 January. "We attended the court hearings and explained that the church has committed no violations."

Complaint against church written "under pressure and dictation from the police"

Police came to the Council of Churches Baptist church in Shu in the southern Jambyl Region on 29 September 2025. As it was a Monday, no religious meetings were taking place that day.

Officers said that a woman had written a complaint that the church was holding lessons for children where church members taught them Bible verses by heart and morality based on the Bible. The woman had attended the church for the previous three weeks.

"The essence of the problem remained unclear," church members noted, "as study of the Bible took place in the church, in which meetings of believers have been held for 40 years."

Officers demanded that the church's pastors write statements. They refused, as officers could not explain why they needed to write them and "partly because any signature can become a reason to lodge a fine".

The same day, police officers went to the school where the children of one of the church's pastors study. On the officers' instruction, the head teacher summoned one of his children. "She questioned the child in the parents' absence," church members complained. "Police officers asked all the questions they wanted to know about church meetings."

"Questioning a child in the absence of parents, especially in a school, on questions unconnected to education is a serious violation of children's rights," church members insisted. "Police crudely violated this right."

The woman who had complained to the police about the church works as a teacher in this school. She admitted to the child's father that she had written the complaint "under pressure and dictation from the police".

Church members note that the police have photographs of all the children who attend children's events at the church. "The entire current situation is causing great concern among believers," they say. "It seems that someone is very unhappy with the believers' meetings."

The duty officer at Shu District Police refused to answer any of Forum 18's questions on 8 January about the police action against the church. He also refused to put Forum 18 through to the head, Bolat Musakulov.

Officials at the Religious Affairs Department of Jambyl Region Akimat did not answer their phones each time Forum 18 called on 8 January.

In March and April 2024, Police in Shu District raided four worship meetings of three local Protestant churches, including the Council of Churches Baptist church in Shu. Officers filmed those present, demanded that some write statements explaining why they were present and issued six summary fines.

Two of the church leaders were also fined in court under Administrative Code Article 490, Part 3 ("Carrying out missionary activity without state registration (or re-registration)").

Saule Baibatshayeva, the official overseeing non-Muslim communities at the Religious Affairs Department of Jambyl Regional Akimat (administration), told Forum 18 in May 2024 that she knew about the raids and fines on Protestants in Shu District in March and April. "The police are to blame," she insisted. "They take their own measures under the Administrative Code. There was no order from us." She claimed that she and her colleagues try to stop police from punishing unregistered Christian communities for meeting for worship.

Appeal court overturns fine, deportation order, but torture unpunished

At the end of the appeal proceedings on 23 December 2025, a panel of judges under Akhmadzhan Irzhanov at Turkistan Regional Court upheld the appeal by Jehovah's Witness Daniyar Tursynbayev and overturned the fine and deportation order imposed the previous month, according to the decision seen by Forum 18. This means he will not be separated from his wife and infant child.

The 25-year-old Tursynbayev is an Uzbek citizen legally resident in Kazakhstan. His wife and child are Kazakh citizens.

On 13 August 2025, Police in Kentau in the southern Turkistan Region detained Tursynbayev. They took him to the police station. Officers seized his mobile phone and passport.

Four officers – reportedly led by Lieutenant Colonel Baglan Yankin - subjected Tursynbayev to repeated torture and murder threats. After six hours of interrogation and torture, he admitted he had conducted "illegal missionary activity". After release late in the evening, his friends took him to hospital to document his fractured rib and other injuries. No police officer has been punished for the torture.

It appears that Kentau Police discovered the "offence" of "missionary activity" after examining Tursynbayev's mobile phone. Lieutenant Colonel Yankin prepared the record of an offence under Administrative Code Article 490, Part 3 ("Carrying out missionary activity without state registration (or re-registration)"). The case was sent to Kentau Town Court.

Also on 13 August, a few hours after it detained Tursynbayev, Kentau Police raided the home where the Jehovah's Witness community meets. "Your actions are illegal. Stop your actions," Lieutenant Colonel Yankin told those gathered. He insisted to them that he was speaking "on behalf of the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan". He ordered those present to leave the premises.

Police took three further Jehovah's Witnesses to the police station but freed them after several hours' questioning.

Tursynbayev fled from Kentau with his family to the city of Almaty after the police torture, fearing for their safety. He failed to have the administrative case against him heard in an Almaty court.

On 21 November 2025, Kentau Town Court found Tursynbayev guilty for writing about his faith on 20 Telegram Stories between September 2023 and December 2024. It fined him about 196,600 Tenge (one month's average wage) and ordered his deportation.

On 23 December 2025, Turkistan Regional Court dismissed the case against Tursynbayev "for absence of the essence of an offence", describing the Kentau Town Court decision as "erroneous", the court decision notes.

"Publication in Telegram Stories of one's religious convictions without the use of coercion represents the realisation of the human right to freedom of conscience and religion guaranteed by Article 18 of the International Covenant [on Civil and Political Rights]," the court decision notes. "Undertaking it does not require prior registration as a missionary and does not form the essence of an offence."

Jehovah's Witnesses welcomed the overturning of the case against Tursynbayev on appeal. "At the same time, the criminal case concerning the torture of Daniyar Tursynbayev remains under review by the Prosecutor's Office," they told Forum 18, "and Kentau Town Court dismissed the complaints regarding procedural violations."

Lieutenant Colonel Yankin continues to insist that he and his colleagues did not torture Tursynbayev. On 18 December 2025, he described Tursynbayev to Forum 18 as "a clown" and Jehovah's Witnesses defending him as "circus performers". (END)

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Kazakhstan

For background information, see Forum 18's Kazakhstan freedom of religion or belief survey

Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments

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