The regime is preparing to deport 66-year-old Pastor Pavel Shreider, leader of the now-banned True and Free Reform Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kyrgyzstan. Arrested in November 2024, the Supreme Court in Bishkek changed the rest of his 3-year prison term to a fine of 3 months' average wage on 25 March 2026. He was freed the same day. He will have to pay for his own deportation. His wife has not been ordered deported, but will leave with him, their family say.

"He has no alternative but to pay the fine," an individual close to Pastor Shreider's situation told Forum 18. They expected he would be given 20 or 30 days to pay. Officials are expected to then deport him. They have already seized his Russian passport. "They are keeping him under watch. He can't remain here [in Kyrgyzstan]" (see below).

The National Agency for Religious Affairs and Interethnic Relations Deputy Director Kanatbek Midin uuly told Forum 18 on 26 March he could not answer any questions about the regime's punishment of Pastor Shreider or other moves against the True and Free Reform Adventists as he was in a meeting. Forum 18 asked the National Agency in writing the same day why Pastor Shreider is still being punished for exercising freedom of religion or belief and why he is to be deported from the country he was born in. Forum 18 has received no answers to its questions (see below).

The National Security Committee (NSC) secret police arrested Pastor Shreider in Bishkek in November 2024. Officers searched his home and those of about 10 other church members. They seized thousands of books, including Bibles, as well as cash and mobile phones. The NSC returned the books in 2025 (see below).

After their arrest, NSC secret police officers tortured Pastor Shreider and another detained church member Igor Tsoy during interrogations. "I was given blows on my head, chest and given kicks in my spine from behind by five officers," Pastor Shreider wrote in a November 2024 complaint. No one has been punished for the torture (see below).

On 19 March 2025, Alamudin District Court in Chuy Region banned the True and Free Reform Adventist Church as an "extremist" religious organisation. In a 20-minute hearing on 4 August 2025, the Supreme Court in Bishkek rejected the Church's appeal against the ban. Indira Aslanova, Senior Expert of the Centre for Religious Studies, an independent organisation in Bishkek, described accusing the True and Free Adventists of "extremism" as "absurd" (see below).

On 10 July 2025, nearly three months after his criminal trial began, Bishkek's Birinchi May (Pervomaisky) District Court jailed Pastor Shreider for three years, to be followed by deportation. Bishkek City Court rejected his appeal on 25 October 2025. He then appealed to the Supreme Court (see below).

Among other prisoners of conscience jailed for exercising freedom of religion or belief, 37-year-old Muslim prisoner of conscience Asadullo Madraimov was freed from prison on 25 March after completing his sentence. Arrested in October 2023, he was punished for criticising the authorities for closing Kara-Suu District's Al-Sarakhsi Mosque in the southern Osh Region (see below).

The National Security Committee (NSC) secret police has not responded to Forum 18's question as to whether a criminal case it opened in 2019 against so far unspecified members of the Jehovah's Witness national centre in Bishkek remains open or has been closed (see below).

Others jailed for exercising freedom of religion or belief

The regime has jailed others for exercising freedom of religion or belief.

Muslim prisoner of conscience Asadullo Ibrakhimovich Madraimov (born 22 July 1988) was arrested in October 2023 and jailed for three years in February 2024. He was punished for criticising the authorities for closing Kara-Suu District's Al-Sarakhsi Mosque in the southern Osh Region. He was freed on 25 March 2026 at the end of his sentence, his family noted. (Each day in pre-trial detention before a verdict comes into force counts as two days of a sentence.)

Another member of the Al-Sarakhsi Mosque community, Mamirzhan Tashmatov, was freed from prison in May 2024.

In July 2023, a court jailed Protestant Aytbek Tynaliyev for 6 months for allegedly "inciting religious enmity" for social media posts sharing his faith.

On 4 December 2019, the National Security Committee (NSC) secret police opened a criminal case against so far unspecified members of the Jehovah's Witness national centre in Bishkek under Article 313, Part 2, Point 2 of the Criminal Code then in force. This punishes "Incitement of racial, ethnic, national, religious or inter-regional enmity (discord) conducted by a group of people in a prior conspiracy" with jail terms.

Forum 18 asked the NSC secret police in writing on 26 March 2026:
- Whether the criminal case is continuing or has been closed;
- If it has been closed, when it was closed; and
- Why local Jehovah's Witnesses have not been kept informed on the course of this criminal investigation.
Forum 18 had received no response by the end of the working day in Bishkek of 31 March.

Forum 18 asked the National Agency for Religious Affairs and Interethnic Relations in Bishkek in writing on 26 March 2026 why the regime jails individuals – including Madraimov, Tashmatov and Tynaliyev – for exercising freedom of religion or belief. Forum 18 had received no answer to its question by the end of the working day in Bishkek of 31 March.

True and Free Reform Seventh-day Adventist Church among banned communities

The True and Free Reform Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kyrgyzstan is part of a reform movement within Adventism that emerged during the Soviet period. (It is separate from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, with its headquarters in the United States.) One of its leaders, prisoner of conscience Vladimir Shelkov, died in a Soviet labour camp in 1980.

The Church – which is led by Pastor Pavel Shreider - chooses not to seek state registration. Exercising freedom of religion or belief without state registration is illegal and punishable.

The Church can no longer meet for worship because of the ban. It previously met in its place of worship in the village of Lenin in Alamudun District of Chuy Region, just north of Bishkek.

The regime has previously banned Ahmadi Muslims, and cancelled the state registration or a Falun Gong association.

The regime raided the Bishkek congregation of the Council of Churches during a harvest festival worship meeting in September 2025 and police summarily fined two congregation leaders. Bishkek's Sverdlov District Court rejected their appeal on 3 February 2026. Bishkek City Court rejected their further appeal on 10 March, local Baptists told Forum 18.

Regime crushes True and Free Reform Adventist Church

The National Security Committee (NSC) secret police arrested the head of the True and Free Adventist Church, Pavel Davidovich Shreider (born 10 January 1960), in Bishkek in November 2024. Officers searched his home and those of about 10 other church members. They seized thousands of books, including Bibles, as well as cash and mobile phones.

The NSC secret police later returned the 2,196 books they confiscated during the November 2024 raids. The NSC handed back about 80 per cent of the books in spring 2025. It returned the rest in September 2025.

After their arrest, NSC secret police officers tortured Pastor Shreider and another detained church member Igor Tsoy during interrogations. "I was given blows on my head, chest and given kicks in my spine from behind by five officers," Pastor Shreider wrote in a November 2024 complaint to the then National Centre for the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Bishkek. Officers "hit me with an iron pipe to force me to confess that I committed crimes".

NSC secret police officers used a stun gun to try to coerce Tsoy to write a statement against Pastor Shreider, causing multiple injuries. However, Tsoy refused to do so.

The then National Centre for the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment claimed that the torture cannot be corroborated. Officials who participated in the arrest and investigation of Pastor Shreider denied that officers tortured Pastor Shreider and church member Tsoy.

Church members complained in writing to the United Nations in Geneva in December 2024 about the raids on their community, the detentions and torture, church members told Forum 18.

Kyrgyzstan's obligations under Convention against Torture

Kyrgyzstan is a party to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This defines torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity."

Under the Convention, Kyrgyzstan is obliged both to arrest any person suspected on good grounds of having committed, instigated or acquiesced to torture "or take other legal measures to ensure his [sic] presence", and also to try them under criminal law which makes "these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature".

In June 2025, the Zhogorku Kenesh (Parliament) voted to abolish the free-standing National Centre for the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which was supposed to help prevent torture under the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture (OPCAT). The Zhogorku Kenesh handed this role to the Office of the regime-appointed Human Rights Ombudsperson.

(The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions accredits Kyrgyzstan's Human Rights Ombudsperson's Office only with B status because of its failure to accord with the Paris Principles, which require such institutions to be independent of government.)

On 30 June 2025, the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture said it was "dismayed at Kyrgyzstan's decision to abolish its independent torture prevention monitoring body, the National Centre for the Prevention of Torture (NCPT), without public consultation or transparency".

Court bans True and Free Reform Adventists as "extremist"

On 19 March 2025, Alamudin District Court in Chuy Region banned the True and Free Reform Adventist Church as an "extremist" religious organisation. The civil case had been brought by Chuy Region Prosecutor's Office with the close involvement of the NSC secret police.

Indira Aslanova, Senior Expert of the Centre for Religious Studies, an independent organisation in Bishkek, told Forum 18 in July 2025 that accusing the True and Free Adventists of "extremism" is "absurd".

On 4 August 2025, Kyrgyzstan's Supreme Court in Bishkek rejected the appeal against the ban. "The whole process took 20 minutes when the Judges decided to go into their chamber for discussion and they came out in a couple of minutes and announced that they upheld the previous decision," Church members told Forum 18. The Supreme Court upheld the ban permanently, and there is no possibility of challenging it in Kyrgyzstan.

In September 2025, church members lodged a further appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva, church members told Forum 18.

As of 31 March 2026, the True and Free Adventist Church does not appear on the list of banned "destructive, extremist and terrorist organisations" on the website of the National Agency for Religious Affairs and Interethnic Relations. Nor does it appear on a list on the website of the National Security Committee (NSC) secret police.

Forum 18 asked the National Agency for Religious Affairs and Interethnic Relations in Bishkek in writing on 26 March 2026 whether the True and Free Adventist Church is still banned and, if so, why. Forum 18 pointed out that the Church is not listed on the National Agency website as banned. Forum 18 had received no answer to its questions by the end of the working day in Bishkek of 31 March.

Arrested Pastor Shreider transferred to prison medical unit because of brain damage

From his arrest in November 2024, Pastor Pavel Shreider was held for 10 months under NSC secret police supervision at Prison No. 21 in Bishkek.

On 12 September 2025, Vera Shreider, Pastor Shreider's daughter, appealed to Prison No. 21 over the state of health of her father. She asked for her father to be given appropriate medical care. "As also seen from the official medical examination paper, he has developed encephalopathy, which is brain damage, and which has affected his general health," his family complained. "We already saw him very weak during the 9 September appeal hearing in the court room, and in writing demanded the prison authorities to transfer him to the medical unit for treatment. They only transferred him more than two weeks later."

Major Azat Kudaybergenov, Chief of Prison No. 21, responded to Vera Shreider on 22 September 2025. "He has been examined multiple times by doctors at Institution No. 21, and diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) with cephalic syndrome. Stage 2 cerebrovascular insufficiency of mixed origin, with cognitive impairment," Major Kudaybergenov wrote, in a letter seen by Forum 18.

"The necessary examinations and treatment have been prescribed," Major Kudaybergenov claimed. "He is currently under the supervision of medical staff at Institution No. 21. He is scheduled for inpatient treatment at the medical unit of correctional facility No. 31."

The family told Forum 18 that they believe that "several factors" may have contributed to Pastor Shreider's condition. "Firstly, he is of an older age. The prison regime is not conducive for his body movement or exercise and his blood circulation is bad. Secondly, he probably has stress every day because of his arrest. And lastly and maybe most importantly, he was beaten by the police officers when he was arrested and given blows to his head."

On 25 September 2025, the prison authorities transferred Pastor Shreider to the medical unit of Prison No. 31. The strict-regime prison is located some 20 kms (12 miles) north east of Bishkek, close to the border with Kazakhstan. Although Pastor Shreider is serving a general-regime labour camp sentence, the authorities took him to the strict-regime camp because it is the only one with an appropriate medical unit.

On 14 October 2025, the prison authorities began the process of transferring Pastor Shreider back to Prison No. 21 in Bishkek. But the state of his health prevented this, his family told Forum 18.

Later in 2025, Pastor Shreider was transferred to Prison No. 27 in Moldovanovka near Bishkek.

Pastor Shreider's conviction, first unsuccessful appeal

On 10 July 2025, nearly three months after his criminal trial began, Bishkek's Birinchi May (Pervomaisky) District Court convicted Pastor Pavel Shreider on charges of "incitement of racial, ethnic, national, religious, or regional enmity". Judge Ubaydulla Satimkulov jailed the then 65-year-old Pastor for three years in a general regime labour camp. The Judge ordered his deportation to Russia at his own cost at the end of the prison term.

Pastor Shreider was born in the village of Orlovka (now Ak-Dobo) in Talas Region of Soviet Kyrgyzstan. He was living in Russia at the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and gained Russian citizenship.

Pastor Shreider's defence lawyer Akmat Alagushev lodged an appeal against his conviction and jail term to Bishkek City Court on 7 August 2025. The Court assigned the case to Judge Kymbat Arkharova. Hearings began in early September, but were delayed when Pastor Shreider was transferred for medical treatment. On 23 October 2025, the Court left Pastor Shreider's sentence unchanged.

Supreme Court changes Shreider's jail term to a fine, deportation expected

After Bishkek City Court rejected Pastor Shreider's first appeal, he lodged a further appeal to the Supreme Court in Bishkek.

On 25 March 2026, a panel of three Judges at the Supreme Court – chaired by Nurlan Musayev - left Pastor Shreider's conviction unchanged, including the deportation order, according to the initial decision seen by Forum 18. (The Supreme Court had not issued the full written decision by the end of the working day of 31 March.)

However, the Supreme Court changed the remainder of Pastor Shreider's prison term to a fine of 150,000 Soms. This represents about three months' average local wage for those in formal work. The hearing was open and family and church members were able to attend.

Officials prepared documentation and released Pastor Shreider from Prison No. 27 in Moldovanovka near Bishkek later on 25 March, according to release documents seen by Forum 18. "His health is satisfactory," an individual close to the case told Forum 18.

"He has no alternative but to pay the fine," the individual told Forum 18. They expected he would be given 20 or 30 days to pay.

It appears that officials will enforce Pastor Shreider's deportation order. "He has both internal and international Russian passports – they have confiscated both of them," the individual told Forum 18. "They are keeping him under watch. He can't remain here [in Kyrgyzstan]."

Although the regime has not ordered the deportation of Pastor Shreider's wife Nelya, it is expected that if he is forced to leave she will go with him.

Pastor Shreider is preparing to lodge a further complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Committee as soon as he receives the Supreme Court decision in writing.

Forum 18 asked the National Agency for Religious Affairs and Interethnic Relations in Bishkek in writing on 26 March 2026 why Pastor Shreider is still being punished for exercising freedom of religion or belief and why he is to be deported from the country he was born in. Forum 18 had received no answer to its questions by the end of the working day in Bishkek of 31 March.

UN Special Rapporteurs' concern over Adventists' torture, arrests, prosecution

On 23 July 2025, five United Nations Special Rapporteurs – including Nazila Ghanea, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief – wrote to the regime (AL KGZ 4/2025) about the "arrests, detentions and alleged torture" of members of the True and Free Reform Adventist Church, as well as the subsequent criminal prosecution of Pastor Pavel Shreider.

The Special Rapporteurs also noted the 19 March 2025 court ruling banning the True and Free Reform Adventist Church as "extremist".

"While we do not wish to prejudge the accuracy of these allegations, we wish to express our serious concerns regarding the arrest, detention and prosecution of Mr. Pavel Schreider, along with the alleged use of torture and other ill-treatment against Messrs. Pavel Schreider, Igor Tsoi, Sergei Sharvan, and Yuri Pauls," the Special Rapporteurs wrote. They pointed out that "If the above allegations would prove to be accurate, they would be in contravention" of various articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

"Serious allegations of torture and ill-treatment have been made with regard to Mr. Schreider and the other male members of the congregation during their detention," the Special Rapporteurs told the regime. "It is reported that the male and female members of the group witnessed SNCS officers striking the heads and bodies of the seven male members of the group, including Mr. Schreider, Mr. Pauls, Mr. Igor Tsoi, Mr. Peter Petkau, all of whom reported ill-treatment in detention. It is reported that Mr. Schreider and Mr. Tsoi were additionally subjected to strangulation with cellophane bags and the use of tasers."

The Special Rapporteurs note that requests by Pastor Shreider's lawyer for an investigation into the secret police's use of torture against him were sent from one agency to another with no result. "This means that the pre-investigative check, which by law should be conducted on such allegations, and the criminal investigation itself, was not conducted," the Special Rapporteurs complain.

The Special Rapporteurs asked the regime for further information or comments on their actions against the True and Free Adventists and about Pastor Shreider's current state of health. They also asked how Pastor Shreider's prosecution and the court-imposed ban on the Church are "compatible with the international human rights obligations", including under the ICCPR. They also asked what measures had been taken to "investigate the credible accusations" of torture against the four Church members.

Regime's response to UN Special Rapporteurs claims actions "in accordance with national law", international treaties

The regime responded with a reply in Russian on 20 September 2025, according to the UN Special Procedures communication website. The response merely recounted the prosecution case against Pastor Shreider and the ban on the Church. It insisted that "the ban on the activities of the aforementioned association and the criminal prosecution of its individual members are carried out in accordance with national law and the international treaties to which the Kyrgyzstan is a party".

The regime's response also dismissed concerns about Pastor Shreider's health condition in prison. (END)

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Kyrgyzstan

For more background, see Forum 18's Kyrgyzstan religious freedom survey

Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments

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