New threats against released pastor Ilmurad Nurliev

"You'll get your head ripped off if you convert to their beliefs"

Now he and members of the still unregistered congregation have been summoned by police for questioning, threats and insults. One of Nurliev's family members was threatened that she would have her head "ripped off" if she converted to "their faith". This is according to the news service Forum 18, which the Danish European Mission co-founded and is involved in the management and operation of.

The new threats

"We will have no peace," says his wife, Maya. The police are questioning everyone they can find who signed the church's rejected application for registration in 2007. The church was denied registration and since then they have not been able to meet for services "due to the circumstances", says Pastor Nurliev.

Compared to rebels in Syria

The latest challenges for Pastor Nurliev, his family and congregation began on Sunday, September 15. On the 16th, "I was summoned to the investigation department where I was questioned by an officer named Rahman Rahmanov," says Nurliev. Many of his family members, his wife's family members and all those who could be tracked down from the group that originally signed the church's application for registration in 2007 were questioned, fingerprinted and photographed, forced to give written statements and subjected to threats and insults, Nurliev says. "They told me that it was because of people like us that there is conflict in Syria," he says.

Maya Nurlieva also questioned

The pastor's wife, Maya, was also summoned on September 16 for a three-hour interrogation at the local police station. "He threatened and insulted me and shouted at me the whole time," she says of the interrogation. She was forced to write down her entire life story, including information about when she became a Christian.

The police took a copy of her identification papers and told her that she was now on the list of people in police records. She was asked to provide a number of photos of herself and information about her entire family, including her mother who is over 90 years old. They also insisted that she show up every Saturday for a check-up, but she refused to do so until she received a written summons.

"No concrete charges have been made against me," says Pastor Nurliev, "and the police won't tell me why they are doing all this. I guess a new criminal case has been opened against me".

Imprisonment

The new interrogations and threats come six months after Pastor Nurliev was released from prison. He was arrested back in August 2010 and sentenced to four years in prison on what his congregation maintains are false charges fabricated to punish him for his religious activities. He was granted amnesty in February 2012 and released. Since then, he has had to report to the police station every Saturday.

Pastor Ilmurad's ordination certificate still confiscated

Some of Pastor Ilmurad's money, his diploma and certificate showing that he is an ordained pastor, which the police seized during his arrest in 2010, have still not been returned, he says.

How did the police get hold of the registration application?

Pastor Nurliev is very concerned that the church's application for registration is now - six years later - being used by the police to select who to summon and threaten. He had been assured that the list had only been given to the State Council for Religious Affairs, which must approve all applications. "How did the Mary police get hold of it?" he asks. "We applied according to the legal procedures, we made all the changes to the documents that the ministry required, but they still would not approve the application. And now they are using the list for this."