SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan — A police officer who led the raid on a home of a Seventh-day Adventist couple in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, said it is illegal for them to have religious literature since the Adventist community does not have registration in the city.
Protestants believe the raid was a reprisal for lodging a new registration application as the community seeks to regain the registration stripped from it in 2007. Among books seized were a Koran and Bibles in Braille.
Police also seized religious literature from individuals’ homes elsewhere in Uzbekistan.
“We will continue fining you unless you stop storing religious literature in your home,” Judge Oltinbek Mansurov warned Artur Alpayev in Navoi in early September after fining him six months’ average local wages for having religious literature at home.
There is no published law that broadly bans individuals from owning religious books or other materials, though materials intended to encourage people to change their beliefs or works which, in the state’s interpretation, “distort religious canons” have been banned since January.
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