22 September 2026

UZBEKISTAN: Shia Muslim's trial begins for religious songs on Telegram channel

22-year-old Sunnatillo Akparov faces 5 to 8 years' imprisonment if convicted for distributing marthiyas (Shia musical lamentations) on a Shia Telegram channel he ran. His trial at Samarkand District Court is due to resume on 25 September. Judge Aziz Lazizov insisted that Akparov "listened to extremist songs. The punishment for this is imprisonment." Muslim prisoner of conscience Alimardon Sultonov was tortured in prison in Navoi and put in an isolation cell in July. "We were instructed that now we cannot answer any questions," the prison's duty officer said.

17 September 2026

AZERBAIJAN: More than 50 prosecutions in 2026 for unapproved religious meetings

A court in Baku's Binagadi District fined 8 Muslims two months' average wage each for holding "religious meetings and other religious activities in a private house". A court in Absheron District heard cases against 26 people who held an unapproved religious meeting in Mehdiabad. These were among 57 known administrative prosecutions between January and mid-September brought by religious affairs officials, police or prosecutors to punish the exercise of freedom of religion or belief. State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations spokesperson Yagut Aliyeva did not answer questions.

9 September 2026

ARMENIA: "The National Assembly has no authority to consider internal Church matters"

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's Civil Contract party committed itself in its manifesto to unilaterally removing the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin. After winning the election, it included the commitment in its five-year Programme, which the National Assembly approved on 25 August. The Church condemned the government and National Assembly moves as outside their competence. "We would emphasise that the state neither can nor wishes to appoint a Catholicos," Pashinyan's spokesperson Melanya Harutyunyan insists. "The state's aim is the restoration of the normal functioning of the Church's own bodies."

31 August 2026

RUSSIA: Prosecutions for cooperation with "undesirable organisations"

The General Prosecutor's Office is ruling that ever more foreign organisations – including some with religious affiliation – threaten Russia's security. The Justice Ministry then adds them to its "undesirable organisations" register. Those "cooperating" with them risk punishment. Olga Sibiryova of the Sova Centre for Information and Analysis – which monitors religious freedom – faces prosecution after an international organisation cited her reports without her knowledge. Courts fined a Baptist church and two Protestant higher education institutions for having literature from Mission Eurasia. A Moscow Region court ordered Bibles it published to be destroyed.

28 August 2026

KYRGYZSTAN: Trials imminent for detained Reform Adventists?

Trial dates are likely to be set in early September for five True and Free Reform Adventists. The regime banned the Church in 2025 after jailing the leader. Four of the five are accused of producing or distributing "extremist" literature, the fifth of participating in a court-banned "extremist" organisation. All could be jailed. "We discovered that they were involved in extremist activity," says Police Investigator Adilet Asanbayev. Asked what exactly constituted "extremism" in their activity, he replied: "They had Adventist books in their homes, which is banned in Kyrgyzstan."

26 August 2026

UKRAINE: Mobilised conscientious objector "killed or not properly looked after"?

On 1 January, one month after masked Recruitment Office officials seized him, 40-year-old Pentecostal conscientious objector Yevhen Nabraklo died in a Rivne hospital, allegedly of "acute purulent bacterial meningitis". "He was in a terrible state when we saw the body in the morgue. We don't know how he died – they can write whatever they like on the death certificate," a relative told Forum 18. "We are conducting a pre-trial investigation .. verifying all the factors that led to the death," Police Investigator Yevhenii Sereda told Forum 18.

18 August 2026

BELARUS: Criminal cases against exiled religious freedom defenders

Police launched criminal cases against two more religious freedom defenders who live outside Belarus: Sergiy Melyanets in January, and Natallia Vasilevich in April. Protestant preacher Melyanets attended court to pray for those on trial until he too was arrested and given short-term detention. Orthodox theologian Vasilevich is moderator of Christian Vision, founded in 2020 to document freedom of religion or belief violations and which the KGB declared "extremist". Investigators refused to explain what criminal charges they face, why, and whether they are suspects or have had charges formally laid against them.

13 August 2026

UZBEKISTAN: Prison term awaits arrested Shia for online religious posts?

In late June, amid a crackdown on Shia Muslims in Samarkand, Police arrested the 22-year-old owner of a Shia-related Telegram channel Sunnatillo Akparov. They accuse him of posting marthiyas (Shia musical lamentations) that "encouraged the activity and teachings of various [unspecified] ideological movements". If convicted of online distribution of "materials containing a threat to public security and public order", he faces 5 to 8 years' imprisonment. Investigator Shokhrukh Asliddinov refused to discuss the case he brought. Police raided at least ten Shia homes in Samarkand since May without official warrants.