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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

KAZAKHSTAN: New controls on religious travel and literature

"Anti-terrorism" legal changes ignoring OSCE recommendations impose foreign religious travel controls, restrict religion book imports "for personal use" to one copy per title, and reinforce state censorship of books and materials on religion. An "anti-extremism" campaign against freedom of religion and belief is planned.

UZBEKISTAN: Torture, prison for "illegal" religious materials

Courts have imprisoned two more foreign citizens – for five years and three years - for having Islamic sermons on their mobiles as they entered Uzbekistan. One was tortured. Three Tashkent Muslims were given suspended prison sentences, after the father of one was "severely tortured".

KAZAKHSTAN: Pensioners fined for praying with pensioners

Three pensioners were fined more than two months' pension for praying with hospice residents and offering New Testaments. Courts fined a yoga teacher and a bookseller for offering religious literature without compulsory state licences. But authorities abandoned attempts to restrict judges' freedom of religion.

KYRGYZSTAN: No grave, no prosecutions over twice-exhumed Christian

The authorities have failed to prosecute those who in October led mobs who twice dug up the body of deceased Protestant Kanygul Satybaldiyeva and officials who allowed this to happen. Officials still will not tell Satybaldiyeva's daughter what they did with her mother's body.

UZBEKISTAN: Prisoners' human rights still denied

Uzbekistan continues long-standing denials of freedom of religion and belief and other human rights of prisoners, including those jailed for exercising freedom of religion and belief. Violations include torture, denials of medical care and of the possibility to read sacred texts and pray openly.

TURKMENISTAN: Questions ignored on tortured prisoners of conscience

Turkmenistan has ignored some questions by the UN Committee Against Torture about tortured Muslim and Jehovah's Witness prisoners of conscience, but provided details of a Sunni Muslim prisoner's three trials. The country also continues to deny the right to conscientious objection to military service.

UZBEKISTAN: More literature-related arrests, raids, fines, jailings

Uzbekistan continues to raid, arrest, fine, and jail people exercising freedom of religion and belief who possess religious literature. Two Protestant five-day prisoners of conscience were ordered to pay 15 per cent each of a month's minimum salary as "compensation" for state prison costs.

TURKMENISTAN: Who is obstructing Russian Orthodox diocese?

"The Orthodox Church wants a diocese and resident bishop in Turkmenistan," an Orthodox told Forum 18. "But it hasn't yet happened." The Deanery Secretary, a Russian priest, was forced to leave. And the Armenian Apostolic Church is still unable to regain a former church.

KAZAKHSTAN: Trial if imam's Istanbul asylum bid fails?

Imam Abdukhalil Abduzhabbarov – in Istanbul Airport with his family since October after deportation from Saudi Arabia - faces criminal trial in his native Kazakhstan if asylum appeal in Turkey fails. The KNB secret police officer who launched the case refused to reveal the accusations.

UZBEKISTAN: More jailings, long-term prisoners' sentences increased

Bakhtiyor Khudaiberdiyev jailed for 6 years for Islamic texts on his phone. Muslim Zulhumor Hamdamova's prison term has been extended by 3 years and her sister Mehrinisso will be tried on unknown new charges. But Baptist Tohar Haydarov freed and Muslim Vohidjon Niyazov deported.

KYRGYZSTAN: State permission to exist still denied

Kyrgyzstan continues to deny all belief communities permission to exist without state control, Protestants stating they "live and exercise freedom of religion and belief with constant fear." Officials refuse to explain why officials' torture of Jehovah's Witnesses meeting for worship is not seriously investigated.

KAZAKHSTAN: Muslim jailed and fined, books banned

Rustam Musayev was jailed for two years for talking about his Islamic faith to KNB secret police informers. "Expert analyses" claimed two books Musayev allegedly offered incited religious hatred. One of these books – with one not claimed to incite religious hatred - was banned.