Christians in Two Kazakh Baptist Churches Fined and Jailed for Religious Literature
ICC NOTE: Further intimidation and persecution of Christians and religious minorities continue in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. The nation is secular in nature, including its government, maintaining former Soviet principles of how religion is the “opiate of the masses”. Christians from a Baptist church in East Kazakhstan were fined for offering uncensored religious literature to others. Kazakhstan has a very strict law on what religious literature can and cannot be printed. In September, three other Christians from another Baptist church spent three days in jail for failure to pay a fine related to similar charges. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has called on Kazakhstan to remove the restrictions placed on religious literature and its excessive censorship practices.
10/18/2016 Kazakhstan (Forum 18) – Erlan Aubakirov, a 35-year-old Muslim from Petropavl [Petropavlovsk] in North Kazakhstan Region, came close to facing criminal charges for launching a Muslim group on the smartphone messaging service WhatsApp. He was eventually fined under the Administrative Code for distributing uncensored religious literature after police decided no basis for a criminal prosecution existed.
Abubakirov was among many punished for violating Kazakhstan’s strict censorship of all religious literature published, printed or distributed in the country – including online and on social media – or imported into the country (see Forum 18’s Kazakhstan religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1939).
Two Council of Churches Baptists were fined in East Kazakhstan Region for offering uncensored religious literature to others (see below).
After two young members of a Council of Baptists congregation in Karaganda [Qaraghandy] Region were stopped while offering uncensored New Testaments and other religious literature on the streets, their parents were summoned and threatened. One of the girls was summoned by the psychologist at the College where she is studying and questioned about her faith and whether any other students attend her community. Her father was fined (see below).
The Muslim and the three Council of Churches Baptists were each fined 50 Monthly Financial Indicators (MFIs), 106,050 Tenge (2,600 Norwegian Kroner, 290 Euros or 320 US Dollars). This represents more than a month’s average wages for those in formal work, though much more for pensioners or the unemployed.