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
29 May 2026
KYRGYZSTAN: Secret police's latest target: Baptists
The NSC secret police has – with other state agencies – long obstructed the exercise of freedom of religion or belief, especially by communities it does not like. It has targeted Ahmadi Muslims, Falun Gong practitioners, Jehovah's Witnesses, and True and Free Reform Adventists, and now Council of Churches Baptists. Two NSC officers led a 19 April raid on their Bishkek church's Sunday worship for a second time. Major Aleksey Akulich, who led both raids, did not answer questions as to why, and whether the NSC initiated the raids and subsequent fines.
27 May 2026
KYRGYZSTAN: Secret police deport Reform Adventist pastor
National Security Committee secret police deported 66-year-old Pastor Pavel Shreider on 9 April. "They put him in a car, took him to the land border and banned him from re-entering the country," an individual told Forum 18. He "would return if he could". He headed the now-banned True and Free Reform Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kyrgyzstan. He was born in Kyrgyzstan but holds a Russian passport. He is now seeking asylum elsewhere. The NSC secret police did not respond to Forum 18 on why they deported him.
6 May 2026
KAZAKHSTAN: Anti-war Orthodox priest "kept in forced, absolute isolation from the world"
On 22 April, an Almaty court extended until 23 May pre-trial detention of 40-year-old independent Orthodox priest Yakov Vorontsov. Arrested on 13 February, he faces criminal charges which he and his supporters reject. "Relatives can't visit Fr Yakov," says lawyer Galym Nurpeisov. "This is the Investigator's decision.. He could allow it." Police investigator Daniyar Kametov refused to discuss the case. Meanwhile, Guldaria Sherizat is appealing against her jail term for demonstrating against China's jailing of her husband Alimnur Turganbay. Her jailing is postponed until February 2027, when her youngest daughter turns 14.
17 April 2026
KAZAKHSTAN: Husband jailed in Xinjiang, wife to be jailed from 2027
When Guldaria Sherizat's youngest daughter turns 14 in 2027, her 5-year jail term is set to begin. She was among 19 Kazakhs originally from China's Xinjiang Province convicted in Taldykorgan on 13 April for "inciting discord" against Chinese people for a November 2025 demonstration. Sherizat was protesting against her husband's jailing in Xinjiang for his protests against his nephew's jailing in Xinjiang for praying. All 19 will appeal. "None of them uttered a single word against the Chinese people," says lawyer Shinkuat Baizhanov. "They only criticised the actions of the Chinese authorities."
31 March 2026
KYRGYZSTAN: Freed, fined, to be deported
66-year-old Pastor Pavel Shreider of the now-banned True and Free Reform Seventh-day Adventist Church is awaiting deportation at his own expense. He was freed from prison on 25 March after the Supreme Court changed his jail term to a fine of 3 months' average wage. Officials have seized his passports. "He has no alternative but to pay the fine," an individual told Forum 18. Muslim prisoner of conscience Asadullo Madraimov was freed from prison on 25 March after completing his sentence for criticising the closure of his mosque.
26 February 2026
KAZAKHSTAN: Orthodox priest's 2-month pre-trial detention – on "fabricated" charges?
On 25 February, Almaty's Investigative Court ordered independent Orthodox priest Yakov Vorontsov held until 23 April as investigators pursue criminal charges that he ran a drugs den. Police Investigator Daniyar Kametov, who is leading the investigation, refused to answer questions. The criminal investigation "appears to be fabricated and ordered", Fr Yakov wrote from prison. His lawyer Galym Nurpeisov described the case as a "frame-up [provokatsiya in Russian]". "We suspect that behind this is the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian FSB," he added. Fr Yakov is trying to register an independent Orthodox parish.
20 February 2026
KAZAKHSTAN: Independent Orthodox priest's 10-day jailing, criminal case underway
Supporters of independent Orthodox priest Fr Yakov Vorontsov – whose 40th birthday is today – fear officials might not release him from his 10-day jail term on 23 February, but rearrest him on criminal drugs charges. He and his supporters say the charges are fabricated. He leads a newly-created independent Orthodox parish. Justice Department officials rejected its first registration application. The parish applied again. The cases are "a result of his wanting to register an independent Orthodox parish, and of his criticism of Russia's war against Ukraine," his lawyer Galym Nurpeisov insists.
17 February 2026
UZBEKISTAN: Mosque prayers for sick mother to lead to former prisoner of conscience re-jailing?
Probation Department officials threatened they would return Muslim former prisoner of conscience Fazilkhoja Arifkhojayev to jail if he again violates the terms of his conditional release. They spotted him visiting a Tashkent mosque to pray for his mother on his way home from hospital. On transfer to conditional release in December 2025, the court-imposed restrictions include a ban on visiting mosques. Former Tashkent imam Fazliddin Parpiyev remains in a Turkish deportation centre awaiting likely return for trial. Alisher Tursunov, a Muslim returned by Turkey in May 2025, was jailed.
16 February 2026
UZBEKISTAN: Political prisoner tortured for protest against ban on reading Koran
Political prisoner Dauletmurat Tajimuratov is serving a 16-year term in Navoi's Prison No. 11 for involvement in the 2022 Karakalpak protests. The Muslim has repeatedly faced punishment for exercising freedom of religion in prison. In 2025, officials "seized .. uneaten food before he could break his fast for Ramadan, resulting in him not eating for four consecutive days," UN human rights rapporteurs noted. In November 2025, guards banned reading the Koran on the prison rest day. When officials insulted him publicly, he threw a boot at them. Guards tortured him.
20 January 2026
KAZAKHSTAN: Wife to be jailed for advocating for husband jailed in Xinjiang?
Guldaria Sherizat, an ethnic Kazakh originally from Xinjiang, is among 19 people on trial in Taldykorgan on 23 January for "inciting national discord against the Chinese people". At a demonstration she called for freedom for her husband Alimnur Turganbay, jailed in Xinjiang since July 2025. He had called in a 2019 video for freedom for his nephew and two other Muslims jailed in Xinjiang for 17 years for praying. Sherizat's family say this is a freedom of religion case, as she advocated for her husband who had defended his nephew jailed for exercising freedom of religion or belief.
13 January 2026
UZBEKISTAN: No mosque visits for Muslim serving sentence under effective house arrest
Muslim prisoner of conscience Fazilkhoja Arifkhojayev, punished for criticising the regime's religious policies, is now banned from attending mosque. A Tashkent court imposed the new effective house arrest (due to end in October 2029) after Probation Department officials claimed he violated the terms of his conditional prison release. Police blocked Tashkent Muslim Gayrat Ziyakhojayev from his appeal against a fine for posting a Muslim sermon online. Turkish officials are holding former Tashkent imam Fazliddin Parpiyev in an Ankara detention centre. His friends fear torture if extradited to Uzbekistan.
9 January 2026
KAZAKHSTAN: Complaint against church "under pressure and dictation from police"
In November, police raided a Baptist church's worship meeting in Balpyk-Bi, blocking the doors. Those present rejected pressure to write statements. When church leaders refused to register the church, police took administrative cases to court, but a judge dismissed them in December. In September, police visited a Baptist church in Shu. A woman who complained that the church was teaching children later admitted she wrote the complaint "under pressure and dictation from the police". Police interrogated a pastor's child in school in the parents' absence. Police in both cases refused to comment.
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