Uzbekistan continues to persecute Christians exercising their religious rights. Recently a Christian in eastern Uzbekistan was beaten by police, another was threatened with death by an axe while a Baptist congregation was promised prison for failure to co-operate in a pre-trial investigation of their pastor.
Although recently released from a four-year jail sentence, former prisoner of conscience Dmitry Shestakov is still under the restrictions of Uzbekistan’s “administrative supervision”.
Five Baptists in Uzbekistan have failed to pay fines for participating in an unregistered worship service.
Uzbekistan police confiscated a Christian’s private property and then imposed a massive fine on him for owning a film about Jesus.
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.
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 Protestant Christian leader in Uzbekistan faces up to 15 years in prison on charges that include teaching religion without official approval and encouraging people to read "prohibited Christian literature," a major religious rights group said Monday, July 14.
Thousands of Christians in Uzbekistan were without anticipated Bibles and related Christian literature Sunday, July 13, as authorities have reportedly imposed a ban on Bible imports, a major Christian publishing group said.
Evangelical Christians in the ex-Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were on edge Saturday, May 6, ahead of Sunday worship services as security forces in both countries reportedly raided church gatherings and threatened believers, including children, while confiscating Bibles.