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 December 2017
RUSSIA: Falsified "evidence" helped convictions?
Apparently falsified testimonies may have helped jail two Russian Muslim prisoners of conscience, Forum 18 has been told. A representative of publishers who formerly published Russian translations of theologian Said Nursi's works has, without success, appealed to the General Prosecutor's Office to investigate.
8 December 2017
RUSSIA: Three more Muslim prisoners of conscience
Three Muslim prisoners of conscience have been jailed, one for four years for organising meetings to study Said Nursi's works, and the other two for three years each. A Danish Jehovah's Witness prisoner of conscience has had his Russian detention extended.
6 December 2017
BELARUS: Tortured, fined for offering religious literature
The court in Lepel has repeatedly fined local Baptists since mid-October for singing and offering Christian books to passers-by near the town market. After detaining two church members, police injured the face of one and put handcuffs so tightly on another that his hands went numb. Their complaint is with the Investigative Committee.
5 December 2017
TAJIKISTAN: "Mistakes", but prisoner of conscience remains jailed
Despite "mistakes" in the verdict jailing Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector Daniil Islamov for six months, the Supreme Court failed to overturn it. Jailed Protestant Pastor Bakhrom Kholmatov has chosen not to appeal further. Police and secret police raided a Protestant church's worship and fined a church member.
4 December 2017
TAJIKISTAN: Nine long jail terms – for what?
At least nine Muslim men – including an imam and a well-known heart surgeon - are known to have been jailed as prisoners of conscience since August in the northern Sugd Region in three separate cases. All received five years or more jail terms. Officials refused to explain what they had done wrong.
29 November 2017
KAZAKHSTAN: Compulsory re-registration if restrictions become law
Amending Law imposing new restrictions on freedom of religion or belief is now with Prime Minister. If adopted, it will require re-registration of almost all religious communities, and impose new restrictions on and punishments for religious education, sharing beliefs, censorship of literature and (for state officials) participating in worship.
23 November 2017
KAZAKHSTAN: Continuing attempts to stop communities meeting
Baptists in Ekibastuz have been fined and told that they "should not meet for worship until they register". Meetings for worship by Oskemen's New Life Church remain banned until 19 December after church members, relatives and friends sang religious songs without state permission. Officials would not explain why football fans don't need permission to publicly sing songs but religious believers do.
17 November 2017
KAZAKHSTAN: Six more arrests for sharing faith
Six Sunni Muslims arrested in Karaganda are under criminal investigation for alleged membership of a Muslim missionary movement. Three of them are in pre-trial detention. All known criminal cases against conscientious objectors have been dropped.
7 November 2017
RUSSIA: Muslim prisoner of conscience tortured
In Russia's prisons one Muslim prisoner of conscience has recently been tortured, and Muslims and Jehovah's Witnesses have both been denied literature. Other Muslims and Jehovah's Witnesses continue to be on trial and face investigations for allegedly organising or participating in allegedly "extremist" organisations.
3 November 2017
KAZAKHSTAN: UN call for prisoner of conscience's release
A Baptist has been given a criminal conviction for refusal to pay a fine for – as the Constitution allows - handing out religious literature on the street. And the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for a prisoner of conscience's "immediate" release.
1 November 2017
TURKEY: What do parents and pupils think?
A group of NGOs have surveyed what Turkish parents and secondary school pupils think about the government's education policies in relation to freedom of religion and belief. Some welcome state actions, but others feel coerced into religious instruction and practices they disagree with.
27 October 2017
UZBEKISTAN: Book banning, censorship, illegal fines, reprisals
A Muslim hairdresser and one of his regular customers with his family is being intensively investigated by an Uzbek police Struggle with Extremism and Terrorism Department for sharing a Muslim book electronically. Several Protestants also have been fined – two illegally threatened - for keeping Christian material in their own homes.