Almaty, Kazakhstan — Some 20 police officers, prosecutor’s office officials and education department officials raided a church-run children’s summer camp near Kazakhstan’s commercial capital, Almaty, on July 30.
Officials frightened the children and “behaved like they were detaining some criminals,” said Pastor Sergei Li of Kapshagai Baptist Church.
Questioning went on from morning until late in the evening. Lieutenant Colonel Bayken Shalkarov, deputy head of Kapshagai Police, defended the raid saying, “The church taught children religion in violation of the law.”
He said police are preparing administrative prosecutions but refused to say for what “offense.” Asem Suttibayeva of Kapshagai Education Department said law-enforcement agencies required young specialists of the department to participate in the raid.
When an Almaty TV channel and its subsidiary Almaty News was asked why they attacked the Baptist church in news broadcasts, deputy chief editor Tatyana Lisitskaya responded, “The authorities gave us the materials for broadcast.”
(F18)
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