ASTANA, Kazakhstan — In Kazakhstan, Baptist leader Nikolai Popov was imprisoned for 48 hours in early December for refusing to pay fines imposed for leading meetings for religious worship.
Another Baptist, Aleksey Buka from the village of Kievka in Karaganda region, was separately fined for attending a meeting for worship, with a third facing a fine for the same “offense.” In one of the Baptist cases, police extorted statements from church members but a fine was still imposed.
A Muslim was fined and ordered deported back to his home country elsewhere in Central Asia. His “offense” was occasionally leading prayers in his local mosque without being personally registered as a “missionary.” The new religion law along with an amending law considerably broadened the range of “offenses” for exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief, as well as increasing punishments for this.
The punishments come as Kazakhstan’s Secretary of State Kanat Saudabayev insisted in a closed Oct. 27 meeting of senior ministers and other officials that the “progressiveness” of the harsh new religion law must be promoted at home and abroad and that “positive acceptance” of its demands by Kazakhstan’s religious communities must be achieved.
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