ORAL, Kazakhstan — Baptists in Kazakhstan continued to be targeted by law enforcement and government officials in December 2014 through fines, threat of jail time and property seizure.
Nikolai Novikov has been fined three times in two years, jailed for five days, placed on Kazakhstan’s exit ban list (with a restraining order placed on his car) and now faces his garage being confiscated.
The Baptist from West Kazakhstan Region refuses to pay any of the fines imposed for meeting for worship without state permission.
Also in December, Aset Doskeyev of Almaty’s Religious Affairs Department wrote to local registered religious communities that holding meetings for worship away from state registered places of worship is an offense.
Another Baptist, Maksim Volikov, was fined the equivalent of one month’s average salary for talking to people about his faith and offering them religious literature without state permission.
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