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The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief

UZBEKISTAN: Legally-published religious literature "extremist"?

The Tashkent trial is due to begin on 13 April of a Muslim accused of giving his hairdresser a legally-published Muslim book. A Fergana Region court handed a Muslim scholar a three-year suspended prison term for possessing for scholarly purposes a Muslim work he did not completely agree with.

UZBEKISTAN: Will authorities pardon tortured, jailed Shia Muslim?

The Chief Directorate for the Enforcement of Punishments refused to say what stage Shia Muslim prisoner of conscience Jahongir Kulijanov's request for pardon has reached. Among 20 Shias detained in Bukhara in February 2017 and tortured, fined in August 2017, Kulijanov was jailed for five years in September 2017 for having works on Shia history.

UZBEKISTAN: Officials bully child, "show trial", fines

The authorities in Uzbekistan's Navoi Region keep raiding and punishing local Baptists "to stop them meeting for worship and peaceful religious activity". Baptists also said that the authorities compel the relatives of ethnic Uzbek Christians to try to stop family members from meeting co-believers.

UZBEKISTAN: No books allowed, Bible ordered destroyed

Uzbekistan still searches homes and fines people for meeting and having religious literature, claiming in one case to look for a gun. After one person admitted to reading Christian books at home, their home was raided and Bible confiscated. Elsewhere, a Bible was destroyed.

UZBEKISTAN: Book banning, censorship, illegal fines, reprisals

A Muslim hairdresser and one of his regular customers with his family is being intensively investigated by an Uzbek police Struggle with Extremism and Terrorism Department for sharing a Muslim book electronically. Several Protestants also have been fined – two illegally threatened - for keeping Christian material in their own homes.

UZBEKISTAN: Surveillance, raids, Bible destruction, jailing, torture

An Urgench Protestant Pastor under surveillance was followed to a neighbouring region, where a meeting was raided. A Bible was ordered to be destroyed, and one person was tortured. Police replied to complaints about torture: "We do not care, you can complain anywhere".

UZBEKISTAN: Torture and impunity for torturers continues

Torture and impunity for torturers continues in Uzbekistan, directed against Muslims, Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses and people of other faiths. Women are targeted for assault, and in another torture case police told a Jehovah's Witness that complaining makes no difference as "we will remain unpunished".

UZBEKISTAN: Extra jail terms, no amnesty

Relatives of two sisters imprisoned since November 2009 for holding Muslim meetings are disappointed they were not amnestied in September. Both had three-year terms added to their sentences in 2016. The younger, 48-year-old Mehrinisso Hamdamova, has a tumour which relatives say is now "huge".

UZBEKISTAN: Religious freedom survey, September 2017

Freedom of religion and belief, with interlinked freedoms of expression, association, and assembly, remains severely restricted in Uzbekistan. Forum 18's survey analysis documents violations including: raids, fines, imprisonment and torture; education and worship meetings without state permission being banned; and religious literature censorship and destruction.

UZBEKISTAN: Short prison terms, fines after "show trial"

Two Baptists were each given five-day prison terms and three more fined in Karshi to punish them for organising Sunday worship raided by police. A Russian Orthodox priest was forced to attend what Baptists call a "show trial", which was also shown on television.

UZBEKISTAN: Muslims' long prison terms, Protestants' short terms

A Tashkent court jailed eleven Muslims who met to pray and discuss their faith for up to six years. Several testified about torture (including officers' threat to rape the wife of one in front of him). The court ignored the testimony. Four Protestants were given 15-day terms.

UZBEKISTAN: Deportation, fines, Bible and Koran seizures

A Russian was deported with no court decision and home-owner fined after police raided a Tashkent Christian meeting. Officials told a Muslim seeking back her seized Koran manuscript that police cannot be prosecuted. Tashkent Airport customs seized pilgrims' Korans. A court ordered New Testament texts destroyed.