Two members of a Protestant congregation in a village in the eastern Lebap region were fined more than two months' average local salary after police were informed that a church member was reading Christian literature at his workplace. Local Protestants told Forum 18 News.
Officials from the state department of religious affairs (including state-appointed imams) and police officers searched the homes of several local Christians and confiscated Bibles and other literature. "They said that the Bible was printed in Kiev, Ukraine, and that it was therefore forbidden to read it," Protestants told Forum 18.
The judge said to one of the church members who was fined: "If you want to know about God, read the Quran".
In another village in the Lebap region, some local elders wrote to the President of Turkmenistan complaining that a Protestant leader was "very harmful to the community". Local Protestants have been subjected to slander at meetings of local residents. State officials have refused to comment on the cases.
Source: Forum 18 News, which the Danish European Mission is co-founder and involved in the management of.
