Tashkent, Uzbekistan — Protestants in Uzbekistan continue to be targeted, Forum 18 News Service has learned.
Police raided a Protestant youth conference, claiming to check identity documents. Many of the about 70 young people were playing football and basketball, and 43 were taken to a police station where they were fingerprinted and photographed.
Two leaders are under investigation for “violation of the procedure for holding mass events” and “violation of the law on religious organizations.”
Two days after that raid, police, tax inspectors and local officials raided Eternal Life Protestant Church in the capital Tashkent. At the time of the raid, church members were feeding homeless people. Officials complained this was “not according to their [registered] charter” and police detained several church members. Police admitted to Forum 18 that the NSS secret police had led the raid.
Following an alleged “Anti-terror” raid on a birthday party, 10 Pentecostals — eight of them pensioners — were fined 100 times the minimum monthly salary.
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