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.”
Dozens of Christian leaders, including three church officials from South Korea, were detained by Chinese security forces Tuesday, March 6, as part of an apparent government crackdown on independent Christian groups, representatives said.
There was mounting concern Monday, March 5, about the whereabouts of a key leader of an indigenous house church in Vietnam’s Central Highlands after Vietnamese security forces reportedly raided a village and detained several Christians.
One of Cuba’s most prominent Christian prisoners, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, has said he has been forced to watch abuses “that threaten the decorous behavior of a civilized society” but stressed he trusts God to one day end his “unjust sentence,” in a letter published by BosNewsLife Saturday, March 3.
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.
Following a renewed outbreak of civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), churches in the northeast are fast becoming another war casualty.
Five young men studying at a Bible college run by mission group Gospel for Asia (GFA) in the Indian state of Maharashtra were reportedly recovering from “severe injuries” Tuesday, February 20, after they were beaten by an angry anti-Christian crowd.
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.
Suspected militants have killed a 58-year-old practicing Indian Christian and former public servant because of his faith in Christ, a senior human rights official told BosNewsLife Monday, February 12.
China Aid Association (CAA) has revealed that Chinese police raided a House Church Christian prayer meeting in Jiangsu province at 10:40am February 7, 2007.
A major Christian rights group expressed concern Wednesday, February 7, about Uzbekistan’s “harshening crackdown on religious freedom.”
An evangelical pastor remained behind bars in Uzbekistan Monday, February 5, more than two weeks after he was detained by secret police on charges of “incitement to hatred on national, racial or religious grounds.”
Authorities in Azerbaijan have launched a crackdown on a church movement of ex-Muslims which grew from 40 to 18,000 members since the former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991, an organization supporting the reportedly persecuted Christian converts said Thursday, February 1.
Kenyan police on Thursday, February 1, continued an investigation into the murders of two American missionaries who were shot and killed last weekend in a carjacking, BosNewsLife established.
Zimbabweans planned to hold a prayer vigil Monday, January 29, outside a court-room where eight detained Christian officials were due to appear after Zimbabwe’s largest crackdown on Christian leaders in six years.
Two prominent human rights activist remained in custody Tuesday, January 30, a day after Vietnamese security forces arrested them in Ho Chi Minh City formerly known as Saigon, fellow dissidents said.
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.