“They can meet and pray to God, but the Law says they have to register”
By Felix Corley
11/6/2009 Kazakhstan (Forum 18) – Two brothers from Kazakhstan, both Baptists, have been prosecuted for religious worship without state registration, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Both were prosecuted under articles of the Administrative Code which violate international human rights commitments, and which the government is set to retains almost intact in a revision of the Code. An Internal Policy Department official defended the fine, telling Forum 18 that “they can meet and pray to God, but the Law says they have to register.” In a case from another region, a member of New Life Church also convicted under one of the Administrative Code articles set to be retained, has lost her appeal against deportation and a fine, and has been deported to Uzbekistan. Her “offence” was giving a 12-year-old girl a Christian children’s magazine. The deportation cuts her off from her four grown-up children.
Two brothers in the Akmola Region of Kazakhstan, both Baptists, have been prosecuted for taking part in religious worship without state registration, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. But while Viktor Leven has had a fine and deportation annulled on appeal, his older brother Didrikh Leven was given a massive fine on 28 October.
The articles of the Code of Administrative Offences under which both brothers were punished violate Kazakhstan’s international human rights commitments. However, the government seems determined to retain them both almost intact in a proposed revised Administrative Code (see F18News 8 October 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1360).
Viktor Leven was found guilty of violating Article 375 Part 3 of the Administrative Code (carrying out missionary activity without local registration), which prescribes a fine and deportation for foreigners or people without citizenship found guilty under this Article.
Didrikh Leven was found guilty of violating Article 374-1 of the same Code (leadership or participation in the activity of an unregistered social or religious organisation).
Viktor Leven, who lives in the town of Esil, was found guilty of conducting missionary activity (although Kazakh-born, he is a German citizen), on 14 October. He was fined 6,480 Tenge (238 Norwegian Kroner, 29 Euros or 43 US Dollars) and ordered to be deported (see F18News 26 October 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1367).
Religious believers of various faiths elsewhere in Kazakhstan have faced continuing raids, fines and detentions throughout 2009 (see eg. F18News 29 September 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1355).
