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
6 February 2017
KAZAKHSTAN: Criminal cases for meeting, criticising Muslim Board
Kazakhstan has detained Kuanysh Bashpayev for criticising the state-controlled Muslim Board, and Satymzhan Azatov for meeting Muslims without state permission. Both face criminal charges of "inciting religious discord", as does atheist Aleksandr Kharlamov facing a possible new trial. Bashpayev's trial opens 14 February.
2 February 2017
KAZAKHSTAN: Sharing beliefs "grave crime" requiring detention?
Kazakhstan's NSC secret police has arrested two Jehovah's Witnesses for discussing their faith with NSC informers. Teymur Akhmedov and Asaf Guliyev are in two months' pre-trial detention, although Akhmedov needs hospitalisation for cancer treatment. The Judge claimed this was to defend a "civilised society".
9 January 2017
KAZAKHSTAN: Five more Sunni Muslim "missionaries" imprisoned
Five Sunni Muslims in Almaty Region - arrested by the NSC secret police in July 2016 – were imprisoned in late December for up to 3 years for alleged membership of the banned Tabligh Jamaat missionary movement. 47 Muslims have been sentenced since December 2014.
5 January 2017
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.
16 December 2016
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.
24 November 2016
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 NSC secret police officer who launched the case refused to reveal the accusations.
10 November 2016
KAZAKHSTAN: Muslim jailed and fined, books banned
Rustam Musayev was jailed for two years for talking about his Islamic faith to NSC 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.
21 October 2016
KAZAKHSTAN: Judges' religious freedom to be restricted?
The draft Code of Judges' Ethics – likely to be adopted at a 24 November congress - proposes wide-ranging bans on exercising freedom of religion outside the professional setting. Judges "shouldn't be very active in their religious conduct", says the Union of Judges secretary.
17 October 2016
KAZAKHSTAN: Criminal case, fines, warnings, imprisonments for uncensored literature
Founder of Muslim WhatsApp group escapes criminal prosecution, but is fined for distributing uncensored religious literature. Baptists are fined for offering literature on the streets, while parents of one girl who did so are warned and father fined. The OSCE calls for end to religious censorship.
10 October 2016
KAZAKHSTAN: Ten more Sunni Muslims sentenced
Sunni Muslim Baurzhan Beisembai was sentenced in Oskemen to two and a half years' imprisonment for alleged membership of Tabligh Jamaat missionary movement. Six others were imprisoned and two given restricted freedom. A further imprisonment in Aktobe means 41 such convictions since December 2014.
7 September 2016
KAZAKHSTAN: Mass trial of Muslims in Oskemen
In a secret police initiated case, nine Sunni Muslims are due on trial in Oskemen on 14 September accused of membership of the banned Tabligh Jamaat Muslim missionary movement. Arrested in early August, Baurzhan Beisembai faces up to six years' imprisonment if convicted.
31 August 2016
KAZAKHSTAN: Pensioners fined as Parliament awaits new Law
Two Baptists in their late seventies were among seven people in East Kazakhstan Region fined for attending a home religious meeting. A new anti-"Extremism" Law, likely to reach Parliament within days, envisages further censorship of religious literature and controls on foreign pilgrimages.