Prominent Protestant pastor Dmitry Shestakov was sentenced Friday, March 9, to four years’ exile within Uzbekistan for his evangelistic activities, Christian rights watchers observing the trial said.
A major human rights watchdog accused the Vietnamese government on Friday, March 9 of “flouting” its commitments on human rights by launching “one of the worst crackdowns on peaceful dissidents,” including Christians, “in 20 years.”
After intensive international pressure, local police released 33 arrested house church leaders and three leaders from South Korea.
Salavat Serikbayev, 32, and Makset Djabbarbergenov, 26, did not make their court date on Monday (February 26) in the regional capital of Nukus to face charges of leading an unregistered religious meeting. The pastors declined to make public the reason for their absence from court.
An Eritrean Christian died in prison last week, four and a half years after the Eritrean regime jailed him for worshipping in a banned Protestant church.
Just days after Eritrean security police arrested one of the founders of the Full Gospel Church last month, two Protestant pastors and another church leader jailed months ago have been released on bail without explanation.
Uzbekista’s religious authorities admitted publicly for the first time this week that an Uzbek Christian pastor was arrested last month in the eastern city of Andijan and now faces criminal charges.
A major Christian rights group expressed concern Wednesday, February 7, about Uzbekistan’s “harshening crackdown on religious freedom.”
China detained at least over 600 Christians last year amid an ongoing crackdown on unregistered ‘house churches’, a report released Tuesday, January 30, showed.
Assailants on Turkey’s Black Sea coast vandalized a Protestant church this weekend, days after nationalists from the region murdered a well-known Armenian journalist.
Uzbek secret police arrested a Protestant pastor from his church in Andijan last weekend, seven months after a regional prosecutor had accused him of committing high treason.
Uzbekistan’s secret police detained Protestant Pastor Dmitry Shestakov at his church in the city of Andijan last weekend, after a regional prosecutor had accused him of “committing high treason,” a Christian news agency reported Thursday, January 25.
Security forces have detained dozens of devoted Christians, including government workers, in the East African nation of Eritrea, a Christian news agency reported Tuesday, January 23.
The Eritrean government demanded this month that the Kale Hiwot Church surrender all its property and physical assets to the government.
Nearly two thousand Christians spent another Sunday, behind bars in Eritrea where they are allegedly subjected to torture and forced labor because of their religious beliefs.
Six Christian men who were arrested in Uzbekistan amid a reported government-led crackdown on Christians and churches across the former Soviet republic have been released, their supporters told BosNewsLife Friday, September 8.
Fearing beatings, detentions and deportations “many” Uzbek Protestant church leaders and their families were in hiding Friday, September 1, as Uzbekistan celebrated its 15th anniversary of independence, Christians said.
Two Protestant Christians have been arrested in southern Laos to stop them from pursuing their evangelization work, according to the Lao Human Rights Movement (LHRM), which is critical of Vientiane’s Communist regime.
Maronite Catholics attacked a newly-built, independent Baptist church near Beirut this month, mauling churchgoers preparing to host war refugees from southern Lebanon.
Missionaries on Wednesday, August 16, said Vietnamese authorities have stepped up attacks against predominantly Christian tribes in remote areas of the Communist-run country shortly after a Christian prisoner was allegedly killed by police.