Kazakhstan

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Four raids, a heart attack and eight fines.

...despite presidential assurances of religious freedom

By the editorial team

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Within 48 hours of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proclaiming that "religious freedom is completely guaranteed", seven members of the Pentecostal Church, including four in their sixties, were heavily fined for meeting for worship.

The leader, Aleksandr Balaev, was fined the equivalent of six months of his pension. Galina Gileva, who is 73, said that during the raid she was subjected to so much stress by the police that she suffered a heart attack. The raid on the church in Zhaskent was one of four raids that have taken place recently in connection with church services.

Source: Forum 18, which the Danish European Mission is co-founder and involved in the management of.