Baptist man fined for violating religious laws

EKIBASTUZ, Kazakhstan — In Kazakhstan’s first known use of expanded and increased punishments for exercising freedom of religion or belief, a Baptist in eastern Kazakhstan has been fined what local people estimate to be a year-and-a-half’s average local wages for leading an unregistered religious organization. 

Shoe repairer and father of 10 Aleksei Asetov was fined $3,273 U.S. dollars for leading the small congregation that meets in his home in Ekibastuz, under a provision introduced in new amendments to the religion laws, local Baptists said. 

The judge also banned the congregation. Elsewhere, a Pentecostal church in Petropavl in north Kazakhstan has twice been raided by the police Department for the Fight against Extremism, Separatism and Terrorism and a local official of the Agency of Religious Affairs. They confiscated New Testaments, other books and DVDs for censorship, and want the church punished for leaving the books on a table about 10 yards from the entrance to a hall they rent for worship. 

Other fines for exercising religious freedom without state permission continue, one Baptist having been fined for unregistered worship meetings following a police operation called “Operation Legal Order.”