#UKRAINE: Conscientious objectors convicted, jailed, held in military units: list

With no alternative civilian service available in wartime, prosecutors have launched more than 1,000 criminal cases against conscientious objectors, with about 500 cases already sent to court. In cases known to Forum 18 (listed here), 29 conscientious objectors are in jail serving sentences, with a further 7 awaiting appeals. Courts handed down 11 probation or restricted freedom sentences. Courts are hearing at least 15 new cases, while 21 conscientious objectors are known to be in pre-trial detention. Recruitment Offices have forcibly taken hundreds of conscientious objectors to military bases, where they often face torture.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3057

#BELARUS: Polish priests "increasingly not allowed to continue their work"

Since January, the regime's chief religious affairs official Aleksandr Rumak has refused bishops' requests for at least a dozen Polish Catholic priests to be allowed to continue their religious service in the country. Most had served for several decades, one - Fr Marian Szerszeń - for 36 years. Archbishop Iosif Stanevsky of Minsk-Mogilev complains that such priests "are increasingly not allowed to continue their work". Rumak's Deputy Sergei Gerasimenya refused to explain why Rumak had refused permission for the Polish priests to continue serving. "We give no comments."

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3058

OCCUPIED #UKRAINE: "Neither Interior Ministry nor court knows reasons for my deportation"

After 66 years' residence in Krasnodon (now in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region), Council of Churches Baptist Pastor Vladimir Rytikov faces deportation from Russian-occupied Ukraine and Russia if his last-ditch appeal fails. The Russian FSB brands him a "threat to security", apparently for leading his church. On 17 July, Russian-controlled Krasnodon Town Court rejected his suit to overturn the deportation order. "Over the past seven years I have been taken to court many times: for missionary activity and holding services without giving notification of the start of a religious group's activity," he says.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3059

#RUSSIA: "Nationwide rise in arbitrary denials of alternative service"

Although the number of young men doing alternative civilian service rather than military service appears to be rising, so too is the number of rejected applications. Rejections often come despite applicants demonstrating to the military authorities that they hold beliefs which preclude participation in military service. "Conscription Commissions rarely provide justifications for their decisions," Call to Conscience laments. Administrative lawsuits challenging refusals often fail. Jehovah's Witnesses say that in 2025, "refusals to grant alternative civilian service were significantly more frequent than positive decisions".

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3060

#RUSSIA: Court challenges to denials of alternative service often fail

Three Pentecostal conscientious objectors in Udmurtiya failed to overturn Conscription Commissions' rejections of their applications for alternative civilian service. The court agreed with the Military Commissariat in each case that they had "failed to substantiate" their conscientious views. "No matter how we litigated, no matter what we did, we were told: 'There is no alternative service now, there is martial law in the country'," one of them noted. Two were sent to military units, while the third obtained a medical exemption. Such court challenges are rarely successful.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3061

#ARMENIA: Trial of Catholicos, six bishops "violates" Church's "right of autonomy"

The criminal trial of seven senior bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church, including its leader Catholicos Karekin, is due to begin at Armavir Region First Instance Court on the afternoon of 7 August. They face up to two years' imprisonment for "failing to execute a judicial act or obstructing its execution" for refusing to reinstate a dismissed bishop in defiance of a court order. Ara Avakyan of the Investigative Committee, who led the investigation, refused to talk. The case "violates the right of autonomy of religious institutions", says Isabella Sargsyan.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3062

#UZBEKISTAN: Prison term awaits arrested Shia for online religious posts?

In late June, amid a crackdown on Shia Muslims in Samarkand, Police arrested the 22-year-old owner of a Shia-related Telegram channel Sunnatillo Akparov. They accuse him of posting marthiyas (Shia musical lamentations) that "encouraged the activity and teachings of various [unspecified] ideological movements". If convicted of online distribution of "materials containing a threat to public security and public order", he faces 5 to 8 years' imprisonment. Investigator Shokhrukh Asliddinov refused to discuss the case he brought. Police raided at least ten Shia homes in Samarkand since May without official warrants.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3063

#BELARUS: Criminal cases against exiled religious freedom defenders

Police launched criminal cases against two more religious freedom defenders who live outside Belarus: Sergiy Melyanets in January, and Natallia Vasilevich in April. Protestant preacher Melyanets attended court to pray for those on trial until he too was arrested and given short-term detention. Orthodox theologian Vasilevich is moderator of Christian Vision, founded in 2020 to document freedom of religion or belief violations and which the KGB declared "extremist". Investigators refused to explain what criminal charges they face, why, and whether they are suspects or have had charges formally laid against them.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3064

#UKRAINE: Mobilised conscientious objector "killed or not properly looked after"?

On 1 January, one month after masked Recruitment Office officials seized him, 40-year-old Pentecostal conscientious objector Yevhen Nabraklo died in a Rivne hospital, allegedly of "acute purulent bacterial meningitis". "He was in a terrible state when we saw the body in the morgue. We don't know how he died – they can write whatever they like on the death certificate," a relative told Forum 18. "We are conducting a pre-trial investigation .. verifying all the factors that led to the death," Police Investigator Yevhenii Sereda told Forum 18.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3065

#KYRGYZSTAN: Trials imminent for detained Reform Adventists?

Trial dates are likely to be set in early September for five True and Free Reform Adventists. The regime banned the Church in 2025 after jailing the leader. Four of the five are accused of producing or distributing "extremist" literature, the fifth of participating in a court-banned "extremist" organisation. All could be jailed. "We discovered that they were involved in extremist activity," says Police Investigator Adilet Asanbayev. Asked what exactly constituted "extremism" in their activity, he replied: "They had Adventist books in their homes, which is banned in Kyrgyzstan."

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3066

#RUSSIA: Prosecutions for cooperation with "undesirable organisations"

The General Prosecutor's Office is ruling that ever more foreign organisations – including some with religious affiliation – threaten Russia's security. The Justice Ministry then adds them to its "undesirable organisations" register. Those "cooperating" with them risk punishment. Olga Sibiryova of the Sova Centre for Information and Analysis – which monitors religious freedom – faces prosecution after an international organisation cited her reports without her knowledge. Courts fined a Baptist church and two Protestant higher education institutions for having literature from Mission Eurasia. A Moscow Region court ordered Bibles it published to be destroyed.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3067

#ARMENIA: "The National Assembly has no authority to consider internal Church matters"

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's Civil Contract party committed itself in its manifesto to unilaterally removing the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin. After winning the election, it included the commitment in its five-year Programme, which the National Assembly approved on 25 August. The Church condemned the government and National Assembly moves as outside their competence. "We would emphasise that the state neither can nor wishes to appoint a Catholicos," Pashinyan's spokesperson Melanya Harutyunyan insists. "The state's aim is the restoration of the normal functioning of the Church's own bodies."

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3068

#AZERBAIJAN: More than 50 prosecutions in 2026 for unapproved religious meetings

A court in Baku's Binagadi District fined 8 Muslims two months' average wage each for holding "religious meetings and other religious activities in a private house". A court in Absheron District heard cases against 26 people who held an unapproved religious meeting in Mehdiabad. These were among 57 known administrative prosecutions between January and mid-September brought by religious affairs officials, police or prosecutors to punish the exercise of freedom of religion or belief. State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations spokesperson Yagut Aliyeva did not answer questions.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3069

#UZBEKISTAN: Shia Muslim's trial begins for religious songs on Telegram channel

22-year-old Sunnatillo Akparov faces 5 to 8 years' imprisonment if convicted for distributing marthiyas (Shia musical lamentations) on a Shia Telegram channel he ran. His trial at Samarkand District Court is due to resume on 25 September. Judge Aziz Lazizov insisted that Akparov "listened to extremist songs. The punishment for this is imprisonment." Muslim prisoner of conscience Alimardon Sultonov was tortured in prison in Navoi and put in an isolation cell in July. "We were instructed that now we cannot answer any questions," the prison's duty officer said.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3070

#KAZAKHSTAN: Hidden camera, "special measures", "expert analyses", trial – jail to follow?

Zhakipbek Ormanov and 8 other Muslims are on criminal trial in Taldykorgan accused of membership of the banned Muslim missionary movement Tabligh Jamaat. They face up to two years' imprisonment. The NSC secret police hid a camera in Ormanov's home and recorded conversations, including on religion. NSC Investigator Nurbol Zhananov did not respond as to who the men might have harmed. "They didn't kill anyone. They didn't call for anyone to be killed," the Deputy Director of the regional state-run Research Centre for Religious Issues and Rehabilitation told Forum 18.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3071

#RUSSIA: "Refusal to acknowledge notification requirement hinders state oversight"

Courts in 7 Regions are known to have banned the activity of 12 Council of Churches Baptist communities because they meet for worship without state registration or notification of their existence to the Justice Ministry. Prosecutors argue – as in an August court decision in Saransk – that failure to notify constitutes "a threat to public interests, public order, and national security". In a Rostov case, a prosecutor argued in court that the Baptists' "prolonged failure to legalise the activity and refusal to acknowledge the notification requirement hinder state oversight".

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3072

OCCUPIED #UKRAINE: Baptist Pastor due for deportation now Luhansk Supreme Court rejected suit

After 67 years' residence in Krasnodon (now in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region), Council of Churches Baptist Pastor Vladimir Rytikov faces deportation from Russian-occupied Ukraine and Russia. On 6 October, Russian-controlled Luhansk Supreme Court rejected his suit to overturn the annulment of his residence permit. Russia's FSB brands him a "threat to security", apparently for leading his church, but has not revealed details. "Over the past seven years I have been taken to court many times: for missionary activity and holding services without giving notification of the start of a religious group's activity," he says.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3073

OCCUPIED #UKRAINE: Baptist community banned, alongside Jehovah's Witnesses, Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Greek Catholics

While court-ordered bans on religious communities meeting without informing the authorities are well-established in Russia, in the first known case in Russian-occupied Ukraine a Luhansk court banned a Council of Churches Baptist community on 25 August. Forum 18 was unable to reach Stanislav Tserenok, Prosecutor of Luhansk's Zhovtnevy District, whose Office brought the suit. The Russian-controlled Luhansk Human Rights Ombudsperson Anna Soroka did not respond to questions about the ban, raids on worship meetings and fines. Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims who read Nursi's works, and Ukraine-loyal communities are among other banned communities.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3074

#KYRGYZSTAN: Adventists fined, but Investigator "would keep them in prison if it depended on me"

Days after deporting True and Free Adventist leader Pavel Shreider, Prosecutors began another criminal case against Church members. House searches, literature seizures, interrogations and "interception of telephone conversations" followed. Five were jailed pre-trial in June. At trials in Bishkek in August and September, Judges changed the criminal charges from "distribution of extremist materials" to participation in an "extremist organisation". The court fined all five up to two weeks' average wage. "I would keep them in prison if it depended on me," Investigator Adilet Asanbayev told Forum 18.
https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3075

#KAZAKHSTAN: Anti-war independent Orthodox priest given 4-year jail term

After 8 months in detention, an Almaty court jailed 40-year-old independent Orthodox priest Fr Yakov Vorontsov for 4 years on drug-related charges on 7 October after a closed trial. "In the house where I lived, they planted prohibited substances," Fr Yakov wrote from prison. "I was accused of storing synthetic drugs, which I never used and never touched." He has appealed. Police Investigator Daniyar Kametov, who led the investigation, refused to comment. Fr Yakov criticised Russia's war against Ukraine and twice tried to register his independent Orthodox parish.

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3076