Kazakhstan continues to punish people who exercise their internationally recognized right to religious freedom without the state's permission, according to Forum 18 News Service, which the Danish European Mission co-founded and is involved in managing.
Searches continue to be carried out, often without warrants, on members of the Baptist Council of Churches who, on principle, do not apply for state registration. This practice has been followed by the "unregistered Baptists", as the denomination is also known, for many years, both before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In a particularly serious case, police appear to have fabricated evidence against Baptist Vasiliy Stakhnev. He has subsequently been heavily fined for the "offense" of distributing religious literature, which he strongly denies having done.
The police allegedly pressured his neighbors to give false testimony against him. One of the neighbors tells Forum 18 that they "weren't sure what they were signing for the police". Stakhnev insists to Forum 18 that he did not distribute any literature and that he was only "guilty" of possessing Christian literature in his own home. Local police inspector Serikhan Tozhigitov of Serebryansk police told Forum 18: "We have not forced anyone to sign anything".
Read about the work of the Danish European Mission in Kazakhstan here...
