Near the Kyrgyz border, police raided four services at three local Protestant churches in March and April. Police photographed those present, asked some to write statements explaining why they were there, and issued six summary fines. A church leader was also fined in court, and another, 77-year-old pastor Andrei Boiprav, is awaiting a court hearing.
Members of the church led by Pastor
Boiprav complained that the situation was “posing a threat to his life and health” and to the continued exercise of the right of church members to freedom of religion or belief (see below).
None of the three churches raided by police were registered with the government. Two of Telemarketing Leads for Sale them were from the Council of Baptist Churches, which chose not to seek state registration. Exercising freedom of religion or belief without state registration is illegal and punishable (see below).
The police immediately fined Valter
Mirau, the 47-year-old pastor of the Baptist Church in the village of Konaeva, and two other church members. The police also took the case to court, and Mirau was again fined for “illegal missionary activities.” Each fine Mirau received was equivalent to two months’ average salary (see below).
Police immediately fined three members of the Shucun Baptist Church one month’s average salary each. Police also filed a case with the court to punish 77-year-old Pastor Andrei Boyprav despite his poor health (see below).
The local Council of Churches Baptist noted in late
April that “events over the past month have caused grave concern to the evangelical community, who are experiencing persecution for their religious practices.” Church members insisted that the Baptist’s activities were “neither illegal nor extreme.”
Forum 18 was unable to contact the Schuyler police or any of the officials involved in the raid on the church or issuing the fines on 3 May (see below).
Sol Baibashayeva, an official in charge of non-Muslim communities in the Department Design of Religious Affairs of the Chambil regional administration, said she was aware of raids and fines against Protestants in Shu district in March and April. “The police are to blame,” she told Forum 18. “They took their own measures under the Administrative Code. There were no orders from us.” She claimed that she and her colleagues tried to stop the police from punishing unregistered Christian communities for gathering to worship (see below).
Shu district borders Kordai district, where officials have launched a campaign to punish Muslims from the minority Dungan who teach the Quran and Islam to local children without government permission. A local court fined two more people in 2023, bringing the number of known fines imposed since 2018 to 15.
Meanwhile, the administrative case against Protestant Sergei Orlov will continue in court in Almaty on May 10. A Religious Affairs Ministry official, Almaz Zhanamanov, prepared the case to punish him for speaking to a group of church members who were gathering to mark International Women’s Day in an Almaty apartment on March 8. Zhanamanov declined to explain why he was punishing Orlov (see below).
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