The wife of an imprisoned Protestant pastor appealed to international observers — including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe — to attend any future trial if her husband’s investigation reaches that stage.
A Pentecostal pastor remained in police custody Tuesday, August 31, in Turkmenistan where he faces five years imprisonment and confiscation of properties for “large-scale swindling”, charges his wife and church members strongly deny, rights activists said.
Police in Uzbekistan jailed ten Baptists for three to five days, and fining them 80 times the monthly minimum wage, according to a religious rights group, Worthy News learned on Monday, August 9.
An influential evangelical organization, which claims to represent over 400 million Christians worldwide, expressed concerns Tuesday, June 1, about police raids on Protestant congregations in Uzbekistan and the detention of several Christians in the former Soviet republic.
An assistant pastor and two other members of one of Uzbekistan capital’s largest Protestant churches began serving 15-day jail terms Wednesday, May 19, on charges that included “violating” strict religious regulations of the former Soviet nation, trial observers said.
Police in Uzbekistan broke up a Protestant youth conference, detaining dozens of Christians, and separately raiided and Protestant church feeding homeless people for allegedly violating local regulations, a religious rights group said Wednesday, April 21.
Christians in Kyrgyzstan continued praying and caring for injured survivors of their Central Asian nation’s bloody uprising that killed at least 84 people, as gunfire interrupted a rally Thursday, April 15, of ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, witnesses and Christians said.
The former Soviet republic of Armenia and Turkey have signed a historic accord on normalizing relations after a century of hostility.
There was uncertainty about the future of one of the largest evangelical churches in Belarus Tuesday, June 2, after authorities ordered it to abandon its building in the capital Minsk.
Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliev was to receive for signing the final version of controversial legislation “limiting freedom of religion” while Christians elsewhere in Central Asia faced similar restrictions Saturday, May 16, rights investigators and local believers said.
An international protest was underway Tuesday, May 12, to obtain the release of a detained, frail, evangelical pastor in Uzbekistan, who came to symbolize what rights investigators described as widespread persecution of Christians and other minorities in Central Asia.
A well-known Baptist pastor in Azerbaijan was weighing his legal options Monday, February 23, after receiving a two-year “corrective labor” sentence for allegedly possessing an “illegal” weapon, trial observers said.
Members of one of Belarus’ largest evangelical churches continued a five-day “fasting and prayer” action, Friday, January 30, amid attempts by authorities to seize their place of worship as part of an alleged crackdown on non-Orthodox groups.
A major Christian rights group warned Tuesday, December 23, that many churches in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan in 2009, if a new draft law requiring them to re-register under restrictive conditions is adopted by parliament.
Baptists in the Russian town of Lipetsk south-east of Moscow say local authorities are using “a bureaucratic way” to restrict their activities, BosNewsLife monitored Wednesday, December 3.
Kyrgyzstan’s controversial new Religion Law was adopted unanimously by the country’s parliament Thursday, November 6, adding to concerns among small Christian groups and churches that they will be targeted by authorities.
Two Baptist pastors in two former Soviet republics faced legal challenges Monday, November 3, because they continued worship services despite opposition from local authorities, Christians and rights watchers said.
Christian missionaries said Tuesday, October 21, they have managed to distribute Russian Bibles and humanitarian aid in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia, which was devastated by two months of war between Russian and Georgian forces.
Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan have begun destroying and banning Protestant churches, forcing an increasing number of Christians to meet and worship “underground” missionaries said Wednesday, October 15.
Belarus has banned a Christian music festival, initiated by Catholics, minutes before it was due to begin, a religious rights group said Thursday, September 25.