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
11 September 2025
KAZAKHSTAN: Kentau Police use torture, murder threats
On 13 August, Kentau Police tortured Jehovah's Witness Daniyar Tursynbayev and threatened him with death until he admitted "illegal missionary activity". Freed after six hours, friends took him to hospital to document his fractured rib and other injuries. If the court finds him guilty of "illegal missionary activity" on 15 September, he would be due for a fine and – as an Uzbek citizen - deportation. Baglan Yankin, Deputy Chief of Kentau Police Department, denied anyone had tortured Tursynbayev. "This is not true. It is disinformation," he told Forum 18.
8 September 2025
UZBEKISTAN: Samarkand Muslim to be tried for Shia Telegram chat group?
Amid a crackdown on Shia Muslims in Samarkand, police in May forced a detained Shia to open up his phone. They discovered a Telegram chat group to discuss Shia Islam. Officers arrested 10 men, questioning them for up to 20 hours about why they created an "illegal" religious chat group. After torture, a court jailed four – including 35-year-old Anvar Aliyev - for up to 10 days on "petty hooliganism" charges. On 14 July, Samarkand Police re-arrested Aliyev. The SSS secret police opened a criminal case about materials threatening "public security".
14 August 2025
KYRGYZSTAN: Supreme Court permanently bans Reform Adventists as "extremist"
On 4 August, three Supreme Court judges rejected the True and Free Reform Adventist Church's appeal against their banning as "extremist". The Judges "were so swift to go through the case materials without giving proper attention to arguments" from lawyer Akmat Alagushev, Church members complain. The decision cannot be appealed. Church members intend to complain to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Religious studies scholar Indira Aslanova says the ban "raises serious concerns". "Such precedents can lead to the criminalisation of peaceful forms of religious practice."
14 July 2025
KYRGYZSTAN: Reform Adventist Pastor's 3-year jail term plus deportation
In November 2024 the NSC secret police arrested and tortured True and Free Reform Adventist Pastor Pavel Shreider, placing him in pre-trial detention. In March 2025 a court banned his Church as "extremist". On 10 July a Bishkek court jailed the 65-year-old for 3 years in a general regime labour camp on charges of "incitement of racial, ethnic, national, religious, or regional enmity", charges he denied. Judge Ubaydulla Satimkulov ordered his post-prison deportation. Officials brought Pastor Shreider to court in handcuffs.
30 June 2025
TAJIKISTAN: Denial of "qualified medical care" led to Ismaili leader's prison death?
Seriously ill prisoner of conscience Muzaffar Davlatmirov, a leading Ismaili Muslim khalifa (cleric) from Mountainous Badakhshan, and his relatives repeatedly called for his transfer from prison to hospital. Prison authorities repeatedly denied this, even when his health deteriorated from May. Officials promised Davlatmirov only to "sort things out later". The 61-year-old died in the labour camp at Yavan in Khatlon Region on 26 June. Officials at the Prisons Department of the Justice Ministry's Department for the Execution of Criminal Punishments did not answer the phone.
27 June 2025
UZBEKISTAN: Judge refuses to explain rejecting 8 Muslims' appeals
Judge Khamid Bobokulov of Kashkadarya Regional Court refused to explain why on 30 April he rejected the appeal by eight Muslim prisoners of conscience from Karshi against their lengthy prison sentences. The men were jailed after discussing their faith at a meal hosted by a provocateur. On 22 May, an apparently secret police-produced video on television claimed it "exposed a Jihadist religious extremist movement". Prison officials mocked Khasan Abdirakhimov for his faith, saying he could only perform namaz sitting down. The duty officer at Zarafshon Prison refused to respond.
25 June 2025
UZBEKISTAN: Courts hand two prisoners of conscience extra jail terms
On 5 May, shortly before his five-year jail term ended, a Bukhara Region court jailed Muslim prisoner of conscience Tulkun Astanov for 3 years, 2 months in a strict-regime labour camp. Prison officers claimed he disobeyed orders by refusing morning exercises. The 54-year-old jailed for defending Muslims' rights, repeatedly tortured for praying in prison, suffered his third stroke in prison. A Navoi court handed Fariduddin Abduvokhidov a further one-year term in April. Courts jailed him for 11 years in 2020, 10 years in 2023 and 10 years in March 2025.
30 May 2025
KYRGYZSTAN: Court bans True and Free Adventist Church as "extremist"
Only four people were apparently present - Judge Ayke Musayeva, her secretary, the prosecutor who brought the suit and an NSC secret police officer – when Alamudun District Court banned the True and Free Adventist Church as "extremist" on 19 March. Church members found out two days later, when the ban was already in force. Their lawyer is preparing a Supreme Court challenge. The ban was based on NSC-commissioned "expert analyses" of books seized in raids which did not meet "the basic standards of scientific analysis", says religious studies scholar Indira Aslanova.
22 May 2025
KYRGYZSTAN: Up to 7 years' imprisonment for True and Free Adventist Pastor?
65-year-old True and Free Reform Adventist Pastor Pavel Shreider faces a five to seven year jail term if a Bishkek court convicts him of incitement, charges he rejects. The trial resumes on 29 May. The NSC secret police arrested him in November 2024. Officers tortured him during interrogation, but his complaint to the National Centre for the Prevention of Torture was closed. Officers tortured with a stun gun church member Igor Tsoy to pressure him to implicate Pastor Shreider. He refused. At NSC behest, a court declared the Church "extremist".
15 May 2025
KAZAKHSTAN: Released prisoner banned from attending mosque
An official banned a released prisoner from attending mosque, threatening punishment for doing so or congratulating fellow Muslims after Friday prayers. The individual is the only one Forum 18 has found specifically banned from visiting places of worship. However, bans on "membership or participation in" religious organisations are common. Officials have not explained whether such bans include attending places of worship. Muslim prisoners of conscience Dadash Mazhenov and Abdukhalil Abduzhabbarov have completed jail terms. After 16 months, Almaty Police closed its criminal investigation into anti-war Orthodox priest Fr Yakov (Vorontsov).
22 April 2025
UZBEKISTAN: Further 10 years in prison for Muslim prisoner of conscience
In the third conviction since December 2020, Navoi City Court handed a further 10-year term to Muslim prisoner of conscience Fariduddin Abduvokhidov. The 30-year-old now appears due for release in November 2034. Originally jailed for meeting with others in Tashkent to discuss Islam, Abduvokhidov's latest "crime" was allegedly telling fellow prisoners that the prison authorities "are not Muslims but infidels". The Investigator learned this through "spies in the prison", as well as "recordings of conversations". Another jailed Muslim, Alimardon Sultonov, was put in isolation cell in his new prison.
9 April 2025
KAZAKHSTAN: 15-month criminal investigation of anti-war priest
Orthodox priest Yakov (Vorontsov) faced difficulties with his diocese after criticising Russia's war against Ukraine in March 2022. After an "emotional" August 2023 Facebook post saying the Russian Orthodox Church "has long had nothing in common with Christianity", police summoned him after an anonymous denunciation and call for him to be prosecuted for inciting religious and ethnic hatred (with a maximum 7-year prison sentence if convicted). Police Investigator Samat Atakhan opened an investigation in December 2023 and – despite one "expert analysis" clearing Fr Yakov – commissioned another and has not closed the case.