Uzbek police raid home, beat disabled child

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — Police raided the Tashkent home of a Russian Orthodox woman Valentina Pleshakova, and her disabled daughter, Natalya, seizing their religious literature and beating Natalya. Freed in the early hours of the following morning, they were each heavily fined later in the day and their confiscated literature was ordered destroyed. After the intervention of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Uzbekistan, Metropolitan Vikenty, the fine was changed into an official warning on appeal. No books were returned. A government-backed website attacked them and another Christian the Metropolitan had defended, Muhabbat Mamatkulova.