Christians from Tashkent have filed their second appeal with Uzbekistan's Supreme Court seeking the acquittal of Tohar Haydarov, according to Forum 18 news service. The Supreme Court had referred their first appeal to the Syrdarya High Court, which upheld its earlier decision.
Tahor Haydarov, then 27, was sentenced to ten years in prison on March 9, 2010 for "illegal sale of narcotic or personality-altering substances in large quantities". Parishioners of the church he attends have consistently maintained that the allegations were fabricated and were a way to punish Haydarov for his faith. Members of the congregation have previously described Tohar as "a man with a clear conscience and an honest Christian".
Have the authorities used false witnesses?
In addition, in the second appeal to the Supreme Court, the Baptists said that two of the official witnesses used in the search of Haydarov's home did not live in the town of Karshi, as was stated in the case file. The third witness, who according to official records was Haydarov's neighbor, did not live at all at the address officially stated. The Baptists said that when they spoke to him, he told them that he had been pressured to sign the official records of the search. However, the witness was afraid to testify in court.
Letters and gifts are not passed on
Local believers who visited Tohar Haydarov also tell Forum 18 that "we found out that he did not receive most of the letters we wrote to him to encourage him". A prison official told the Baptists that some letters sent to him were not passed on to him, partly because they included the word "God" and therefore had to be censored.
They also report that a package of gifts sent to Haydarov from Germany had been confiscated by prison management and that he had only received a small chocolate bar from the contents of the package.
Image: Prayer card for Tohar Haydarov with the text: Remember those who are in captivity as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as truly as you have a body. - Hebrews 13:3
Is Tohar allowed to read the Bible?
It is also questionable whether Haydarov, when he is free from his hard work at a brick factory near the prison, is allowed to go to the library and read the Bible. The Baptists tell Forum 18: "When we found out that the Bible we had sent to him had not been given to him, we asked the prison management what the reason was. A prison official told us that prisoners are not allowed to have a personal Bible, which can only be in the library."
The prison management claims that "we have freedom of religion" and has not answered the Baptists' questions about whether Tahor Haydarov receives the letters sent to him and whether he is allowed to read the Bible in the prison library.
Systematic resistance to children and young people believing?
The question is whether the imprisonment of Tohar Haydarov is indicative of a general trend in Uzbekistan where the authorities are systematically trying to prevent children and young people from receiving Bible teaching, being together and practicing their faith.
For example, in January 2008, Grace Church was accused of dumbing down the minds of children, and in May 2008, a student was threatened with expulsion from an institution of higher learning if he did not deny his faith or spy on his church for the intelligence services. That same month, police threatened the children of Baptists at their school that they would go to jail if they attended church, and they were interrogated about what their parents taught them, what books they read, what movies they watched, what music they listened to, what songs they sang, and whether or not they liked it. In April 2009, 17 members of a registered church in Bukhara were fined 100 times the minimum wage for, among other things, "religious activity of children".
On April 10, 2010, police raided a Protestant church youth conference taking place in the village of Baraj in the Bostanlyk district of the Tashkent region. When the police arrived, around 70 young people were playing football and basketball outside. 43 young people and the leader of the conference, Denis Shirkov, and his wife were taken to the police station where they were photographed and fingerprinted.
These examples illustrate the challenges faced by children and young people who want to be Christians and their parents in Uzbekistan.
