Methodist Pastor Told to Leave Kazakh City or There Will be “Serious Trouble”

(Forum 18) – An Uzbek pastor of a Kazakh church, Rashid Turebaev, has been told by police to leave the city of Karaganda “immediately or there would be serious trouble,” Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Turbaev has in the past been told by officials that he does not need to re-register his place of residence, but in a sudden reversal has now been fined for not re-registering. He is pastor of the registered Living Water Methodist Church , and the National Security Service secret police has pressured him to pass on information about foreign citizens – especially Americans – who belong to his congregation. The police have accused Turbaev, without any evidence, of doing unregistered missionary work and struggled to reply to Forum 18’s questions as to how Turebaev’s work could under the law be seen as missionary activity, and why their has been a sudden change in the official attitude. Turebaev told Forum 18 that he “will be forced to go back to Uzbekistan where I may be arrested again.”