ASTANA, Kazakhstan — In what may be the first such instance in Kazakhstan, a court has ordered religious literature to be destroyed. A total of 121 books confiscated from a Baptist, Vyacheslav Cherkasov, were ordered destroyed in the northern Akmola Region, according to the verdict seen by Forum 18 News Service.
The books include Bibles, children’s Bibles and other books and leaflets on the Christian faith, mainly in the Kazakh language. Cherkasov also was fined one month’s average wage. If he loses his appeal, court executors will carry out the destruction.
Human rights defender Yevgeni Zhovtis of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law sounded distressed, telling Forum 18, “This is terrible, terrible.”
Religious literature is frequently confiscated, and the state appears committed to using censorship and other freedom of religion or belief violations as a means to control society.
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