Raid on youth conference
On the afternoon of April 10, police raided a Protestant church youth conference taking place in the village of Baraj in Bostanlyk district of the Tashkent region. When the police arrived, about 70 young people were playing football and basketball outside. The police confiscated the conference program and computer files with seven hymns.
Image: Woman in market
43 young people as well as the leader of the conference, Denis Shirkov, and his wife were taken to the police station where they were photographed and fingerprinted. They were all released at 23:00 in the evening and it has not been possible for the Forum 18 news service to find out why the police carried out this raid.
Church raided while distributing food to the homeless
Just two days later, police, tax inspectors and local officials raided the Eternal Life Church in Tashkent's Yakkasarai district. Journalists from Uzbek TV's Channel 1 were present during the raid, which took place while church members distributed food to the homeless. Protestant Christians are regularly vilified in programs on Uzbek TV that identify them as sects and accuse them of being Satanists, among other things.
In this raid, the authorities complained that by distributing food to the homeless, members were carrying out activities that were not in accordance with the approval the church had received. At the time of writing, it is not known if the raid will lead to legal action against the church.
"Anti-terror" raid on birthday party
On March 10, Dilbar Akhmedieva's home was searched. Mostly retired women from a Pentecostal church were gathered there to celebrate a church member's birthday. The authorities heavily fined the women 100 times the minimum wage, equivalent to approximately 12,000 Danish kroner per person, for violating the "procedure for organizing and holding gatherings, meetings, marches and demonstrations" and Article 202 "creating conditions for holding illegal meetings". The fines are huge - especially as the convicted are mainly pensioners who have to survive on public pensions.
In court, the women said they had gathered for a birthday party for a church member when the 'anti-terror' raid began. The women appealed the verdict, but on April 2, the judge of the Tashkent City Criminal Court rejected their appeal and upheld the fines.
In the face of persecution, a Baptist told Forum 18 in April that there "there are always new persecutions of true Christians who will devote themselves to Christ and live as the Holy Gospel teaches". The Danish European Mission has been involved in the country for many years, especially in Bible translation work, as the entire Bible is not yet available in the northwestern province.
