On the evening of 7 October, at the end of a closed trial, Judge Zhasulan Khusainov of Medeu District Court No. 2 of the southern city of Almaty finally allowed some observers and cameras in for the sentencing of 40-year-old independent Orthodox priest Fr Yakov Vorontsov. The Judge jailed him for 6 years on drug-related charges which he denied. Taking account of an amnesty, the sentence was reduced to 4 years' imprisonment. The Judge refuses to allow the full verdict to be made public. Fr Yakov is appealing to Almaty City Court.

"The verdict issued today is, in our opinion, illegal," Fr Yakov's lawyer Galym Nurpeisov told the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law after the hearing. "No evidence was presented here. We showed it. We disagree with the verdict." He described the conviction and jail term as "political persecution" (see below).

Officials claim that during a 13 February raid on Fr Yakov's home by masked OMON riot police with dogs, they found 2.44 grams of a drug. The criminal case had been opened before the raid took place. Fr Yakov has been in detention since then. He was subjected to a compulsory psychiatric assessment from May to July (see below).

"In the house where I lived, they planted prohibited substances," Fr Yakov wrote from prison on 14 October. "I was accused of storing synthetic drugs, which I never used and never touched. I have many sins for which I would consider punishment fair. But God allowed me to be punished not for the real guilt, but for the underhandedness, to be expelled for the truth, to suffer for convictions, for freedom of conscience" (see below).

On 16 September, the first day of Fr Yakov's trial, Judge Khusainov declared it closed, against the wishes of the defence. Forum 18 asked Judge Khusainov's secretary (who had herself attended the trial) why the Judge had declared the trial closed. Forum 18 has received no response (see below).

Forum 18 was unable to reach Adlan Ismailkhanov of Medeu District Prosecutor's Office, who led the prosecution case in court. Telephones were busy or went unanswered (see below).

Police Investigator Daniyar Kametov, who opened the criminal case and led the investigation that ended with the conviction of Fr Yakov, refused to comment on his conviction and jailing. "For an official comment go to the press service," he told Forum 18. He then put the phone down (see below).

Fr Yakov remains in Almaty's Investigation Prison until the appeal is heard. Fr Yakov's sister, Svetlana Mitko, was able to visit him in Investigation Prison on 21 October. She said her brother was "doing well" and found her visit a "great comfort". "He continues to fight for justice. They even tried to pressure him into signing a confession - they practically demanded it - but he refused. They picked the wrong person to mess with!" (see below).

Fr Yakov – who leads a fledgling independent Orthodox parish after the Moscow Patriarchate defrocked him in 2023 - defends his actions over several years. "For a long time, I have openly and publicly opposed military aggression, supporting Ukraine, which is in the face of evil, in its struggle for freedom and independence. I still adhere to these beliefs now. For a long time, I boldly and publicly opposed the politicisation and militarisation of the [Russian Orthodox] church" (see below).

"And here I am in prison," Fr Yakov added. "Of course, all this was done with the aim of preventing the registration of our community" (see below).

Almaty City Justice Department officials rejected the parish's first registration application in December 2025. The Justice Department again rejected the parish's January 2026 application (see below).

Meanwhile, another trial is underway in nearby Taldykorgan in Zhetisu Region. The trial of nine Sunni Muslims accused of membership of the banned Muslim missionary movement Tabligh Jamaat is due to resume on 30 October (see forthcoming F18News article).

The trial of the nine follows the December 2025 conviction of 12 other Sunni Muslims for alleged membership of Tabligh Jamaat. The court handed down jail terms of 1 to 5 years.

The family of Guldaria Sherizat – who is due to start her 5-year jail term in spring 2027 after her youngest daughter turns 14 - have expressed concerns about her health. She was among 19 Kazakhs originally from Xinjiang in China who were convicted for taking part in a protest against the Chinese government's actions against Xinjiang's Kazakhs. The Chinese authorities had jailed her husband Alimnur Turganbay in July 2025 for protesting against the jailing in Xinjiang of his nephew Serik Dauitbek for praying (see forthcoming F18News article).

Officials twice reject independent parish's registration application

Anti-war Orthodox priest Fr Yakov (Vladimir Yuryevich Vorontsov, born 20 February 1986) was a priest of Kazakhstan's Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate, serving in his native city of Almaty. In July 2023, the Diocesan Council ruled that he should be defrocked. He originally hoped to create an Orthodox parish in Almaty under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, but later sought to register an independent Orthodox parish.

In the months before his February 2026 arrest, Fr Yakov worked on registering the Independent Community of Orthodox Christians in Honour of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

"Our community intends to come under the spiritual guidance of the Ecumenical Patriarch, and until this is achieved, the religious association is an independent autonomous non-confessional community continuing the traditions of those Orthodox communities in Central Asia, led by the holy martyrs Iosif (Petrov) and Kirill (Smirnov)," Fr Yakov wrote from prison on 14 October.

The founding assembly of the religious association elected Fr Yakov as its leader. The community submitted all documents for its registration as a religious organisation to Almaty City Justice Department.

Justice Department officials rejected the parish's first registration application in December 2025. The Justice Department again rejected the parish's January 2026 application.

"In March 2026, we expected to receive registration," Fr Yakov wrote. "Satan has mobilised against our community. His servants publicly slandered me, calling on the authorities to repress me. And here I am in prison. Of course, all this was done with the aim of preventing the registration of our community."

Fr Yakov added: "Yes, the community did not receive registration. Yes, its elected leader was deceived and deprived of freedom. But the community was formed."

"Covert audio and video recording"

Fr Yakov Vorontsov always had numerous visitors at his home in Almaty, which he shared with family members and another resident. Officials conducted "covert audio and video recording" of Fr Yakov's home for 30 days from 14 November 2025, according to the 7 October short court verdict.

Two men – who were given pseudonyms in the case – were said to have visited him in late 2025. They later spoke to the Investigator against Fr Yakov, accusing him of drug use. One was excluded by the time the case reached court as the prosecution could produce no evidence that he existed. The other appears to have been an undercover police officer.

During the raid by masked OMON riot police with dogs on 13 February 2026, police found three packets allegedly containing 2.44 grams of drugs. Neither of the two state-required witnesses to the raid saw officers retrieving the packets, according to the lawyer's October 2026 supplementary appeal against Fr Yakov's conviction. Fr Yakov believes the drugs were planted.

Investigators opened a criminal case against Fr Yakov of "organising a den for drug use" under Criminal Code Article 302 on 13 February, just before the raid.

Forced psychiatric examination

On 18 May, Almaty's Specialised Inter-District Investigative Court granted the investigator's request to replace Fr Yakov Vorontsov's pre-trial detention with detention in a specialised psychiatric medical institution as a "security measure" during the investigation. Neither Fr Yakov nor his lawyer were present at the hearing. Although Fr Yakov appealed against the decision, the authorities transferred him to a psychiatric institution in Aktas in Almaty Region on 25 May, before his appeal could be considered.

On 6 May, Police investigator Daniyar Kametov, who was leading the investigation, refused to explain to Forum 18 why a psychological/psychiatric examination of Fr Yakov was needed.

In July, Fr Yakov was transferred from the psychiatric hospital in Aktas back to the pre-trial detention centre in Almaty. Doctors concluded that Fr Yakov had no mental health abnormalities and that there was no reason to require his compulsory treatment.

Hunger strike over closed trial hearings

Prosecutors handed the criminal case against Fr Yakov Vorontsov to Almaty's Medeu District Court No. 2. He was accused under Criminal Code Article 302 ("organising a den for drug use") and Article 296, Part 4 ("Illegal production, processing, acquisition, storage, transportation without the purpose of sale of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues in especially large quantities").

However, on 14 September Fr Yakov's lawyer announced that the court had dropped the accusation under Criminal Code Article 302 just before the trial was to begin.

The trial under Judge Zhasulan Khusainov finally began on 16 September, with further hearings on 6 and 7 October. Fr Yakov rejected the charges against him.

Fr Yakov's lawyer Galym Nurpeisov and his public defender, his sister Svetlana Mitko, attended all the hearings. Adlan Ismailkhanov of Medeu District Prosecutor's Office led the prosecution case in court.

Against the wishes of the defence, and with more than 50 of Fr Yakov's supporters present at the court, Judge Khusainov declared the case closed at the 16 September hearing. The Judge claimed that this was necessary to protect a participant in the trial (a reference to one of the "secret" witnesses). That meant that neither Nurpeisov nor Mitko can reveal what occurred during the trial.

Forum 18 asked Judge Khusainov's secretary (who had herself attended the trial) in writing before the start of the working day in Almaty of 23 October why the Judge had declared hearings in Fr Yakov's trial closed. Forum 18 had received no response by the afternoon of 23 October.

"For seven months, I have been held in custody unlawfully, despite being completely innocent," Fr Yakov wrote from Investigation Prison on 18 September while his trial was underway. "The criminal case against me has been fabricated; the charges are absurd and bear no relation to the truth."

Fr Yakov announced that he had started an indefinite hunger strike on 16 September, consuming only water. "I declared the hunger strike in protest against the decision of Judge Khusainov to conduct the proceedings behind closed doors. I believe that the judge made this decision without justification and unlawfully, exceeding his authority and abusing his power, thereby grossly violating my constitutional and procedural rights." Fr Yakov later gave up the hunger strike.

4-year jail term

On the evening of 7 October, at the end of the closed trial, Judge Zhasulan Khusainov of Medeu District Court No. 2 finally allowed some observers and cameras in for the sentencing of Fr Yakov Vorontsov.

The Judge read out the final part of the verdict in a small courtroom, with Fr Yakov in the defendant's box. Many of those who came to support the priest had to watch proceedings from a monitor in a larger nearby room, the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Almaty noted the following day.

The Judge convicted Fr Yakov under Article 296, Part 4 ("Illegal production, processing, acquisition, storage, transportation without the purpose of sale of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues in especially large quantities").

Judge Khusainov handed Fr Yakov a 6-year jail term in a medium-security labour camp, close to the maximum 7-year jail term. His sentence is deemed to run from 23 February 2026. Taking account of an amnesty for the adoption of Kazakhstan's new Constitution, the sentence was reduced by a third to 4 years' imprisonment, according to the short verdict seen by Forum 18. The Judge refuses to allow the full verdict to be made public.

Judge Khusainov also ordered Fr Yakov to pay 20 Monthly Financial Indicators, 86,500 Tenge, to the victims' fund. He also ordered him to pay nearly 40,000 Tenge in court fees. (The combined fees represent about one week's average local wage.)

"The verdict issued today is, in our opinion, illegal," Fr Yakov's lawyer Galym Nurpeisov told the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law after the verdict was handed down. "No evidence was presented here. We showed it. We disagree with the verdict." He described the conviction and jail term as "political persecution".

The Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law said the final court proceedings "moved at an accelerated pace". "A few hours after the closing arguments, the verdict was announced - well after the working day had ended," it noted on 8 June. "As those present observed, the timing of this evening verdict happened to coincide with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's birthday."

Forum 18 was unable to reach Ismailkhanov of Medeu District Prosecutor's Office. Telephones were busy or went unanswered on 22 and 23 October.

Investigator Daniyar Kametov of Almaty City Police, who opened the criminal case and led the investigation that ended with the conviction of Fr Yakov, refused to comment on his conviction and jailing. "For an official comment go to the press service," he told Forum 18 on 22 October. He then put the phone down.

"Outrageous lawlessness and injustice"

"If possible, tell everyone that I am innocent," Fr Yakov Vorontsov wrote from Almaty's Investigation Prison on 9 October. "I have not broken down and have not admitted guilt. It was proposed to me that I offer a hypocritical repentance for what I did not do. Then they would have given me a suspended sentence. But I did not take on this sin."

Fr Yakov wrote again from prison on 14 October. "In the house where I lived, they planted prohibited substances. I was accused of storing synthetic drugs, which I never used and never touched. I have many sins for which I would consider punishment fair. But God allowed me to be punished not for the real guilt, but for the underhandedness, to be expelled for the truth, to suffer for convictions, for freedom of conscience."

Fr Yakov defended his actions over several years. "For a long time, I have openly and publicly opposed military aggression, supporting Ukraine, which is in the face of evil, in its struggle for freedom and independence. I still adhere to these beliefs now. For a long time, I boldly and publicly opposed the politicisation and militarisation of the [Russian Orthodox] church, fought against clerical despotism and the self-rule of hierarchs - against those evils that destroyed the church from within and led to the situation where the vocal minority leads the church through apostasy, and the silent majority indulges it."

Fr Yakov added: "Faced with outrageous lawlessness and injustice, being condemned to a long prison term without guilt, I forgive everyone. For the months spent in detention, God led me through repentance and purification. He placed peace in my heart and taught me to forgive everyone."

Appeal and supplementary appeal

The Prosecutor and Fr Yakov were each given 15 days to lodge an appeal against his 7 October conviction and jail term to Almaty City Court. Fr Yakov has lodged an appeal.

Because the trial was closed and the full verdict secret, the text of Fr Yakov's appeal cannot be made public.

However, his lawyer Galym Nurpeisov lodged a supplementary appeal (seen by Forum 18) questioning various aspects of the case.

"The defence does not dispute the composition of the substance as determined by the expert, nor the fact that it was discovered," the supplementary appeal notes. "However, these documents merely confirm where the substance was found, as well as its composition and mass; they do not establish that Vorontsov was aware of the substance or that he was in actual possession of it."

The supplementary appeal notes that the two official witnesses to the 13 February house search arrived only after police had discovered the drugs. Police had not filmed the discovery of the drugs.

Among other complaints, the supplementary appeal questions the Judge's decision to declare the trial closed. It maintains that the witness could have been protected when he testified without declaring the whole trial closed. "This argument is supplementary and does not replace the primary ground for reversal: the failure to prove guilt."

In Almaty's Pre-Trial Investigation Prison

Fr Yakov has been held in Almaty's Pre-Trial Investigation Prison since his arrest. He is likely to remain there until his appeal is heard.

Fr Yakov's sister, Svetlana Mitko, was able to visit him in Investigation Prison on 21 October. "The Lord has rewarded us for the long time we were kept apart before the trial," she told Forum 18 from Almaty on 22 October. As Fr Yakov's public defender, she is able to visit him once a week as he awaits his appeal. "However, if the appeal is unsuccessful, I will lose this status."

Mitko said her brother was "doing well" and found her visit a "great comfort". "He continues to fight for justice. They even tried to pressure him into signing a confession - they practically demanded it - but he refused. They picked the wrong person to mess with!"

Mitko added that she was "infinitely grateful" for those around the world who supported her brother up to and during his trial. She cited in particular the German-based group Peace to All (which supports anti-war Orthodox clergy), the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Almaty, and Forum 18.

Fr Yakov's address in Investigation Prison:

050045, g. Almaty
Turksibsky raion
ul. Krasnogorskaya 73
Uchr. No. 72

(END)

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

For background information, see Forum 18's Kazakhstan freedom of religion or belief 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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