#KYRGYZSTAN: Up to 7 years' imprisonment for True and Free Adventist Pastor?

65-year-old True and Free Reform Adventist Pastor Pavel Shreider faces a five to seven year jail term if a Bishkek court convicts him of incitement, charges he rejects. The trial resumes on 29 May. The NSC secret police arrested him in November 2024. Officers tortured him during interrogation, but his complaint to the National Centre for the Prevention of Torture was closed. Officers tortured with a stun gun church member Igor Tsoy to pressure him to implicate Pastor Shreider. He refused. At NSC behest, a court declared the Church "extremist".

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2978

#KYRGYZSTAN: Court bans True and Free Adventist Church as "extremist"

Only four people were apparently present - Judge Ayke Musayeva, her secretary, the prosecutor who brought the suit and an NSC secret police officer – when Alamudun District Court banned the True and Free Adventist Church as "extremist" on 19 March. Church members found out two days later, when the ban was already in force. Their lawyer is preparing a Supreme Court challenge. The ban was based on NSC-commissioned "expert analyses" of books seized in raids which did not meet "the basic standards of scientific analysis", says religious studies scholar Indira Aslanova.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2979

OCCUPIED #UKRAINE: "Missionary" fines, "so-called religious services"

A court in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk fined Pastor Vladimir Rudomyotkin several days' average local wage on 23 May for alleged missionary activity. His Council of Churches Baptist congregation meets without seeking permission from officials. Two days earlier, another Donetsk court punished St Joseph Roman Catholic parish for allegedly failing to give its official full name "within the framework of missionary activity". An Enerhodar court fined an individual 3 weeks' average local wage for organising a community "where so-called religious services were held on Sundays".

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2980

OCCUPIED #UKRAINE: Raids, registration pressure, places of worship deemed "ownerless"

A prosecutor and police in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region raided Krasnodon's Council of Churches Baptist congregation's Pentecost worship meeting on 8 June. "The main issue is the registration of the church!" Pastor Vladimir Rytikov noted. Asked if she could explain why Krasnodon Police raided the Church, the duty officer said only: "We can't." Occupation authorities threaten other Baptist congregations that meet without seeking permission. The Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Region administration lists a Greek Catholic Church – whose priest was expelled in 2022 – and a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall as "ownerless".

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2981

OCCUPIED #UKRAINE: "Bishop says no" on Ukrainian Orthodox entities

The Russian-controlled Justice Department requested an "expert conclusion" on a Brotherhood of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Russian-occupied Luhansk from Russia's Justice Ministry. Its Expert Council said the Brotherhood provided "deliberately false information that it operates as part of the Luhansk diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, that is, a structure that does not in reality exist". It cited Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Pantaleimon that "Luhansk Diocese does not support the creation on its canonical territory of Orthodox parishes, brotherhoods and other religious organisations" not part of the Russian Orthodox Church.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2982

#RUSSIA: Prosecutions for unlawful "missionary activity" – 2024 to 2025

At least 90 people in 2024 and 34 in January-April 2025 were prosecuted for unlawful "missionary activity". Fines are typically several weeks' average wages, but foreigners can be deported. A Kurganinsk Magistrate's Court fined six Baptists – including Pastor Aleksandr Chmykh - for leading worship meetings. A Stavropol Muslim teacher was fined for leading prayers and Koranic studies for girls. Police and prosecutors did not respond on why they had brought charges to punish individuals who had conducted worship services in places of worship, prayer rooms, or residential premises.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2983

#RUSSIA: Foreigners face summary expulsion for illegal "missionary activity"

On 5 February, amendments to the Administrative Code entered force allowing police - without having to go to court - to fine and expel from Russia foreign citizens who conduct "illegal missionary activity". Forum 18 has so far found one such case. Among earlier cases, in October 2024, 85-year-old Catholic priest Władysław Kloc lost his appeal against a fine and expulsion for leading worship in his parish. Most known prosecutions of foreign citizens involve Muslims who appear to be Central Asian migrant workers.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2984

#RUSSIA: "Missionary activity" prosecutions January 2024 to April 2025 - list

The 124 known prosecutions under Administrative Code Article 5.26, Part 4 ("Russians conducting missionary activity") and Part 5 ("Foreigners conducting missionary activity") between January 2024 and April 2025 are listed. First-instance courts (in one case police) convicted 107 defendants and acquitted three. They closed or returned a further 12 cases to police or prosecutors. Two cases which reached court after the permitted three-month period were dismissed. All but six of those convicted received fines. Most appeals were unsuccessful. Of 35 foreigners charged, 18 were ordered expelled from Russia.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2985

#UZBEKISTAN: Courts hand two prisoners of conscience extra jail terms

On 5 May, shortly before his five-year jail term ended, a Bukhara Region court jailed Muslim prisoner of conscience Tulkun Astanov for 3 years, 2 months in a strict-regime labour camp. Prison officers claimed he disobeyed orders by refusing morning exercises. The 54-year-old jailed for defending Muslims' rights, repeatedly tortured for praying in prison, suffered his third stroke in prison. A Navoi court handed Fariduddin Abduvokhidov a further one-year term in April. Courts jailed him for 11 years in 2020, 10 years in 2023 and 10 years in March 2025.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2986

#UZBEKISTAN: Judge refuses to explain rejecting 8 Muslims' appeals

Judge Khamid Bobokulov of Kashkadarya Regional Court refused to explain why on 30 April he rejected the appeal by eight Muslim prisoners of conscience from Karshi against their lengthy prison sentences. The men were jailed after discussing their faith at a meal hosted by a provocateur. On 22 May, an apparently secret police-produced video on television claimed it "exposed a Jihadist religious extremist movement". Prison officials mocked Khasan Abdirakhimov for his faith, saying he could only perform namaz sitting down. The duty officer at Zarafshon Prison refused to respond.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2987

#TAJIKISTAN: Denial of "qualified medical care" led to Ismaili leader's prison death?

Seriously ill prisoner of conscience Muzaffar Davlatmirov, a leading Ismaili Muslim khalifa (cleric) from Mountainous Badakhshan, and his relatives repeatedly called for his transfer from prison to hospital. Prison authorities repeatedly denied this, even when his health deteriorated from May. Officials promised Davlatmirov only to "sort things out later". The 61-year-old died in the labour camp at Yavan in Khatlon Region on 26 June. Officials at the Prisons Department of the Justice Ministry's Department for the Execution of Criminal Punishments did not answer the phone.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2988

#RUSSIA: Buddhist leader given longest known anti-war jail term

A Moscow court jailed Buddhist leader Ilya Vasilyev on 25 June for eight years for allegedly disseminating "knowingly false information" about Russia's Armed Forces, the longest known prison term for opposing Russia's war against Ukraine on religious grounds. "We called for the voice of reason, but it seems the judge heard only the voice of the prosecutor's office," his lawyer Gevorg Aleksanyan said. A court spokesperson refused comment on the verdict or why the Judge refuses a prison visit from a Buddhist priest. Protestant pastor Nikolay Romanyuk's criminal trial may begin in mid-July.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2989

#BELARUS: "God may be calling you to church, but prison officials decide"

Four of the freed political prisoners recount restrictions on prisoners' exercise of freedom of religion or belief. Political prisoners are barred from attending Orthodox prison chapels. "God may be calling you to church, but prison officials decide," Ihar Karnei notes. Orthodox Christian Sergei Tikhanovsky was denied access to a priest for more than 5 years. Denials of access to meetings for worship, religious literature and clergy visits violate the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Officials of four of the prisons refused to discuss the restrictions with Forum 18.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2990

#KYRGYZSTAN: Reform Adventist Pastor's 3-year jail term plus deportation

In November 2024 the NSC secret police arrested and tortured True and Free Reform Adventist Pastor Pavel Shreider, placing him in pre-trial detention. In March 2025 a court banned his Church as "extremist". On 10 July a Bishkek court jailed the 65-year-old for 3 years in a general regime labour camp on charges of "incitement of racial, ethnic, national, religious, or regional enmity", charges he denied. Judge Ubaydulla Satimkulov ordered his post-prison deportation. Officials brought Pastor Shreider to court in handcuffs.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2991

#UKRAINE: Official claims "social outrage" prevents Romanian Orthodox registration

A Religious Association of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ukraine lodged a registration application in August 2024. The State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) did not accept or reject it by the legal deadline of November 2024. DESS head Viktor Yelensky denies it has rejected the application, but insists "broad consultations" and agreement with a different community, the state-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine, are needed. When three parishes tried to transfer from the Moscow-linked Ukrainian to the Romanian Orthodox Church, officials threatened to send priests and male villagers to the front.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2992

#AZERBAIJAN: Large fines for religious meeting

Officers were watching a home in Nakhichevan where Christians were meeting. About 20 officers raided a Sunday worship meeting in April. They held three visitors from Baku for two days without food. Police brought cases against them and two local people. Nakhichevan City Court fined the five up to three months' average wage each on 19 June. The five will struggle to pay the large fines, an individual familiar with the cases said. Also fined and apparently deported were members of a Korean family who allowed the meetings in their home.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2993

#RUSSIA: Old Catholic priest fined for anti-war sermons

Fr Aleksandr Khmelyov, an Old Catholic priest, left Russia on 11 July after Telegram channels thought to be linked to state security services claimed investigators were preparing further administrative and criminal cases against him possibly for "creation of an extremist community" or "LGBT propaganda". Earlier that day, a St Petersburg court fined him for "discrediting" the Russian Armed Forces in a February 2022 sermon. A spokesperson for the St Petersburg court system ignored Forum 18's questions about why Fr Aleksandr's actions were considered "discreditation" of the Armed Forces.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2994

#KYRGYZSTAN: Supreme Court permanently bans Reform Adventists as "extremist"

On 4 August, three Supreme Court judges rejected the True and Free Reform Adventist Church's appeal against their banning as "extremist". The Judges "were so swift to go through the case materials without giving proper attention to arguments" from lawyer Akmat Alagushev, Church members complain. The decision cannot be appealed. Church members intend to complain to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Religious studies scholar Indira Aslanova says the ban "raises serious concerns". "Such precedents can lead to the criminalisation of peaceful forms of religious practice."

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2995

#RUSSIA: Council of Churches Baptist communities banned

Council of Churches Baptists continue to meet for worship outside their church building in Kurganinsk in Krasnodar Region, three months after bailiffs sealed it. They were enforcing a September 2024 court order prohibiting the activities of the 600-strong community unless it submitted notification of its existence. Courts have banned several other Council of Churches congregations, with prosecutors seeking more. Neither Krasnodar Regional Prosecutor's Office nor Kurganinsk District Court responded to Forum 18 as to why they had been involved in prohibiting the church's activities.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2996

#AZERBAIJAN: First jailing of conscientious objector for 3 years

On 30 July, Yevlakh District Court jailed 19-year-old Jehovah's Witness Elgiz Ibrahimov for one year for refusing compulsory military service on grounds of conscience. Officials arrested him in the courtroom. They took him to a high-security prison in Ganca, initially holding him in a cell with 40 other men and 10 beds. He has appealed. Zahid Oruj, chair of Parliament's Human Rights Committee, appears to accept the criminal prosecution of conscientious objectors. He insisted that since no Alternative Service Law exists, "our judicial institutions have taken the right steps".

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2997