Shymkent in southern Kazakhstan where Dilobarkhon Sultanova was arrested after helping a women download a Bible app. PICTURE: Alex J Butler/CC/Flickr
A Kazakhstan court has acquitted a Christian women accused of “missionary activity” after she was caught in an “apparent sting operation”, reports regional news agency Forum 18.
Police officers arrested Dilobarkhon Sultanova in January after she helped Elmira Inibekova download a Bible app to her mobile phone.
The two women met after Ms Inibekova started attending the New Life Church in Shymkent, near the Uzbek border, in late 2017.
On 11th January, 2018, Ms Inibekova asked Ms Sultanova to meet her near a local cafe to help her download the app. Shortly after the two women had met, two police officers detained Ms Sultanova. A third then arrived with Ms Inibekova.
“Literally a minute-and-a-half after we parted the [police] detained me,” Me Sultanova is reported as saying.
Ms Sultanova was charged under Administrative Code Article 490, Part 3, which punishes missionary activity carried out without state registration, and the use of religious literature that has not been given a “positive assessment from a religious studies expert”.
On 13th March she was acquitted, with the court noting that the Bible “is not banned literature and does not require a positive religious studies expert analysis”.
Ms Sultanova’s lawyer said the court came to a “correct and just conclusion”.
