#RUSSIA: Buddhist's retrial, Protestant pastor's appeal fails

On 22 October, Moscow City Court overturned the conviction and 8-year prison term handed to Moscow Buddhist leader Ilya Vasilyev for a Facebook post about a Russian missile attack in Ukraine made "solely out of religious conviction". No date has yet been set for a retrial, and Vasilyev remains in a Moscow prison. On 25 November, Moscow Regional Court upheld the 4-year jail term on Protestant pastor Nikolay Romanyuk for a 2022 anti-war sermon. "Dad is awaiting transfer to the penal colony," his daughter noted even before the appeal hearing.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3018

#UZBEKISTAN: Police conduct sexual harassment, threaten fines or jail for sharing faith

Police and Struggle against Terrorism and Extremism police summon Jehovah's Witnesses who share their faith with others in public. Officers warn of fines of two months' average wages – and in one case of up to five years' imprisonment. In May, police interrogated and verbally abused a woman and her minor daughter, and instructed them to undress. The women refused. Officers forced them to sign that they "illegally shared their faith". "I don't think that could have happened," Mirjamol Miralimov of the Interior Ministry's struggle against extremism and terrorism Service claimed.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3019

#AZERBAIJAN: Conscientious objector freed from prison under restrictions, with electronic tag

Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector Elgiz Ibrahimov will serve the rest of his one-year sentence not in prison but on probation under restrictions, wearing an electronic tag. On 26 November, Sheki Appeal Court upheld his conviction for rejecting compulsory military service on grounds of conscience. The Judges said his nearly 4 months in prison "will deter him from committing acts that could lead to the loss of his freedom in the future". Despite its Council of Europe commitment to introduce alternative civilian service by 2003, Azerbaijan failed to do so.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3020

#RUSSIA: Peaceful clergy statements "can become the target of prosecution"

In a series of administrative prosecutions, a Krasnodar Region court fined Orthodox priest Fr Iona Sigida on 18 December for allegedly expressing "overt disrespect" for society, state bodies, and state symbols, apparently for articles on his church's website. Other administrative cases are pending. He also faces criminal charges. In September, a St Petersburg court fined Fr Grigory Okhanov for his religiously-based opposition to Russia's war in Ukraine. Also in St Petersburg, Archbishop Grigory Mikhnov-Vaytenko managed to overturn an earlier fine, but the case will be reheard.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3021

#KAZAKHSTAN: Complaint against church "under pressure and dictation from police"

In November, police raided a Baptist church's worship meeting in Balpyk-Bi, blocking the doors. Those present rejected pressure to write statements. When church leaders refused to register the church, police took administrative cases to court, but a judge dismissed them in December. In September, police visited a Baptist church in Shu. A woman who complained that the church was teaching children later admitted she wrote the complaint "under pressure and dictation from the police". Police interrogated a pastor's child in school in the parents' absence. Police in both cases refused to comment.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3022

#UZBEKISTAN: No mosque visits for Muslim serving sentence under effective house arrest

Muslim prisoner of conscience Fazilkhoja Arifkhojayev, punished for criticising the regime's religious policies, is now banned from attending mosque. A Tashkent court imposed the new effective house arrest (due to end in October 2029) after Probation Department officials claimed he violated the terms of his conditional prison release. Police blocked Tashkent Muslim Gayrat Ziyakhojayev from his appeal against a fine for posting a Muslim sermon online. Turkish officials are holding former Tashkent imam Fazliddin Parpiyev in an Ankara detention centre. His friends fear torture if extradited to Uzbekistan.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3023

#RUSSIA: Four administrative fines for anti-war articles, criminal investigation underway

Independent Orthodox priest Iona Sigida has not appealed against four administrative fines imposed in late December 2025. At least two punished him for articles on his church's website. Forum 18 asked Slavyansk City Court why expressing religious views on politics and the war in Ukraine was considered "discreditation" of the Armed Forces or "disrespect" for society or the state. The Court chair directed Forum 18 to the written decisions. Fr Iona is under house arrest as he undergoes criminal investigation. Moscow Buddhist leader Ilya Vasilyev's retrial begins on 19 January.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3024

#KAZAKHSTAN: Wife to be jailed for advocating for husband jailed in Xinjiang?

Guldaria Sherizat, an ethnic Kazakh originally from Xinjiang, is among 19 people on trial in Taldykorgan on 23 January for "inciting national discord against the Chinese people". At a demonstration she called for freedom for her husband Alimnur Turganbay, jailed in Xinjiang since July 2025. He had called in a 2019 video for freedom for his nephew and two other Muslims jailed in Xinjiang for 17 years for praying. Sherizat's family say this is a freedom of religion case, as she advocated for her husband who had defended his nephew jailed for exercising freedom of religion or belief.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3025

OCCUPIED #UKRAINE: "If we don't register, they'll come to every service and stop it"

Russian Police and military officers (some with automatic weapons) raided Council of Churches Baptists' Sunday worship in Krasnodon on 25 January. "They said that if we don't register, they'll come to every service and stop it taking place," Pastor Vladimir Rytikov said of his interrogation at the police station. The same day, Police Anti-Extremism officers raided another nearby church. In September 2025, officials raided Muslim prayers in Mariupol and fined two imams. Between July and December 2025, officials raided at least seven worship meetings, with five subsequent fines.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3026

#RUSSIA: One church unsealed, others face banning suits

In November 2025, Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, National Guard troops, prosecutor's office and fire service officials inspected a Council of Churches Baptist church in Rostov's Kirov District. In December 2025, a Magistrate's Court fined Pastor Oleg Volkov for "unlawful missionary activity". Prosecutors then sought to ban the church because it refuses to undergo state registration. They did not respond to Forum 18 as to why they are doing this. Courts have so far banned the activities of at least ten Council of Churches communities, largely in Krasnodar Region.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3027

#ARMENIA: Prime Minister seeks to change leadership of legally autonomous Armenian Church

Officials have not responded to questions why Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly called for the removal of the head of the Armenian Church, Catholicos Karekin, despite the constitutionally-guaranteed autonomy of religious organisations. A bishop Karekin defrocked for backing Pashinyan's calls challenged his dismissal in court. When the Church ignored his court-ordered reinstatement, the Investigative Committee launched a criminal investigation into six bishops and a priest, banning them from leaving Armenia. The government has liquidated the state and church funded Shoghakat television channel and ended the Church-run military chaplaincy.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3028

#UZBEKISTAN: Political prisoner tortured for protest against ban on reading Koran

Political prisoner Dauletmurat Tajimuratov is serving a 16-year term in Navoi's Prison No. 11 for involvement in the 2022 Karakalpak protests. The Muslim has repeatedly faced punishment for exercising freedom of religion in prison. In 2025, officials "seized .. uneaten food before he could break his fast for Ramadan, resulting in him not eating for four consecutive days," UN human rights rapporteurs noted. In November 2025, guards banned reading the Koran on the prison rest day. When officials insulted him publicly, he threw a boot at them. Guards tortured him.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3029

#UZBEKISTAN: Mosque prayers for sick mother to lead to former prisoner of conscience re-jailing?

Probation Department officials threatened they would return former Muslim prisoner of conscience Fazilkhoja Arifkhojayev to jail if he again violates the terms of his conditional release. They spotted him visiting a Tashkent mosque to pray for his mother on his way home from hospital. On transfer to conditional release in December 2025, the court-imposed restrictions include a ban on visiting mosques. Former Tashkent imam Fazliddin Parpiyev remains in a Turkish deportation centre awaiting likely return for trial. Alisher Tursunov, a Muslim returned by Turkey in May 2025, was jailed.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3030

#KAZAKHSTAN: Independent Orthodox priest's 10-day jailing, criminal case underway

Supporters of independent Orthodox priest Fr Yakov Vorontsov – whose 40th birthday is today – fear officials might not release him from his 10-day jail term on 23 February, but rearrest him on criminal drugs charges. He and his supporters say the charges are fabricated. He leads a newly-created independent Orthodox parish. Justice Department officials rejected its first registration application. The parish applied again. The cases are "a result of his wanting to register an independent Orthodox parish, and of his criticism of Russia's war against Ukraine," his lawyer Galym Nurpeisov insists.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3031

#KAZAKHSTAN: Orthodox priest's 2-month pre-trial detention – on "fabricated" charges?

On 25 February, Almaty's Investigative Court ordered independent Orthodox priest Yakov Vorontsov held until 23 April as investigators pursue criminal charges that he ran a drugs den. Police Investigator Daniyar Kametov, who is leading the investigation, refused to answer questions. The criminal investigation "appears to be fabricated and ordered", Fr Yakov wrote from prison. His lawyer Galym Nurpeisov described the case as a "frame-up [provokatsiya in Russian]". "We suspect that behind this is the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian FSB," he added. Fr Yakov is trying to register an independent Orthodox parish.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3032

#RUSSIA: Revocation of citizenship after extremism convictions "gaining momentum"

Born in Soviet Uzbekistan, Rustam Diarov had his Russian citizenship revoked in February 2025 while he was in jail to punish him for participation in Jehovah's Witness meetings. On 17 February 2026, prison authorities released Diarov early on health grounds and by the following evening he was in Uzbekistan. His wife, a Russian citizen, went with him. Interior Ministry authorities have revoked the Russian citizenship of at least 12 Jehovah's Witnesses and 2 Muslims convicted for exercising freedom of religion. The practice "has been gaining momentum over the past year", Jehovah's Witnesses observe.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3033

#BELARUS: Praying daily for "speedy and honest restoration" of Red Church

Asked if Saints Simon and Helena Catholic Church (Red Church) in central Minsk will be returned for worship once renovations are complete in January 2027, Deputy Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs Sergei Gerasimenya and Head of the Ideology, Religion, and Ethnic Affairs Coordination Department of Minsk City Executive Committee Tatyana Shevchik both refused to say. Minsk Heritage – which controls the building and ordered it closed after a September 2022 suspicious minor fire - refused Catholic requests to visit the tomb of the Church's founder Edvard Vainilovich on 10 April.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3034

#BELARUS: "Your long-time pastor is leaving your parish against his will"

Polish Catholic parish priest Fr Paweł Kruczek had served in Belarus for almost 20 years, Fr Adam Straczyński for 11 years. Their Bishop describes their "forced departure" as "painful". The regime's senior religious affairs official, Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs Aleksandr Rumak, refused the Bishop's request for the two to continue to be allowed to conduct religious work in Belarus. Andrei Aryayev of the Religious Department of the Plenipotentiary's Office in Minsk and Irina Zakharevich of the Ideology Directorate of Brest Regional Executive Committee both refused to discuss the refusals.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3035

#RUSSIA: Handcuffed, stripped, beaten, "repeatedly subjected to electric shocks"

The FSB raided at least four Jehovah's Witness households in Dimitrovgrad in Ulyanovsk Region early on 3 February. Masked officers knocked down Zhanna Popova when she answered the door. An officer struck her 60-year-old husband Igor Popov in the back, "forcibly twisting his neck", apparently to make him give up his computer password. At the local FSB headquarters, Popov was handcuffed, stripped, beaten, and "repeatedly subjected to electric shocks". An investigator forced him to sign a prepared statement "incriminating himself". Officials have not answered Forum 18's questions about the torture.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3036

OCCUPIED #UKRAINE: Born in Krasnodon 66 years ago, now ordered expelled

On 21 March, Russia's occupation authorities in Ukraine ordered Baptist pastor Vladimir Rytikov to leave what they regard as Russian territory within two weeks. "I was born here and have lived here for [nearly] 67 years, now I'm being driven out," he noted. Officials have repeatedly raided the Council of Churches Baptist congregation which the Soviet-era religious prisoner of conscience has led for 30 years in Krasnodon, his birthplace. Courts have repeatedly fined him for "illegal missionary activity" for leading the unregistered congregation.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3037