Kazakhstan-born Baptist Viktor Leven, who holds German citizenship, will be deported if a Kazakh court upholds a decision punishing him for “unregistered missionary activity,” local prosecutor Kairat Ramazanov said Oct. 26.
“This is not persecution on religious grounds — the law demands this,” he insisted, claiming that preaching at a church service represented missionary activity and was thus illegal without state approval.
Constitutional guarantees of freedom to practice a faith or none are not, Ramazanov claimed, infringed by the restrictions on religious activity imposed in the Religion Law.
Leven, who along with his family was born in Kazakhstan, insisted that he is not a missionary.
“This is where I live and all five of our children were born here,” he stated.
Leven also said that the family are in the process of renouncing German citizenship — which many people born in the former Soviet Union have received — to claim Kazakh citizenship.
Also President Nursultan Nazarbayev has announced a need for a new state body to oversee religion. (F18)
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