Seven Baptists – including two aged in their late 70s – were fined for meeting for worship in a home without state registration in Kazakhstan this week.
Forum 18 reports that the congregation is a member of the Baptist Council of Churches and has adopted a policy of civil disobedience by refusing to pay the many fines handed down in Kazakhstan and other countries of the region for exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief.
The fines, which were handed down on 29th August, reportedly ranged from the maximum of about $US310 – representing nearly a month’s wages for the average person – down to about $US215.
The Oslo-based Christian news service says the seven defendants each insisted that Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Kazakhstan ratified in a 2005 law, protects their right to freedom of religion or belief. However, the organisation says the judge ignored the defendants’ reference to their internationally-protected human rights.
“The court took no notice of the International Covenant [ICCPR], which Kazakhstan has signed,” a fellow Baptist who attended the hearings complained to Forum 18 on 31st August. “All of them will appeal against the punishments.”
Meanwhile, Forum 18 says the government is likely to sign off within days on a draft anti-“extremism” Amending Law to be presented to the Majilis (parliament) in the capital Astana for consideration in September. The Amending Law is set to amend six codes and 18 individual laws.
While many provisions of the draft currently available would widen or increase punishments for those involved in violence – such as attacking foreign diplomats, distributing illegal weapons or committing acts of terrorism that kill or maim people – some provisions appear unrelated to the stated goal of “countering extremism and terrorism”.
Among the wide-ranging proposed amendments are increases in state-imposed pre-publication censorship of all literature about religion. Further restrictions would be imposed on the import or distribution of literature about religion, including by allowing individuals to bring into the country only one copy of any uncensored book about religion. “Religious tourism” – such as the haj pilgrimage to Mecca – is also set to come under tighter state control.
~ Forum 18
