URGENCH, Uzbekistan — Police officers from Uzbekistan’s criminal investigation department burst into the home of a Protestant pastor in northwest Uzbekistan April 24, disrupting 12 people as they were having lunch together. The pastor and another believer were charged with “breaking the laws on teaching religion.” The raid in Urgench, a city in the Khorezm region near the Turkmen border, targeted the house of Pastor Lunkin Sergey of the Union of Independent Churches.
In a separate incident, three Christians in Tashkent were arrested April 21 while visiting and helping feed patients at a tuberculosis hospital for children. One of them was charged with violating administrative laws against teaching religion. During the past 12 months, Uzbekistan’s police and judicial authorities have stepped up pressures against Protestant Christians, and even government-registered churches are under heightened scrutiny.
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