Following a raid on a Baptist church in the southern Uzbek town of Karshi, two visiting Baptists were, on October 25, given massive fines of over 45 times the country's minimum monthly salary each for participating in unregistered religious worship.
Four local church members were given smaller fines, Protestant sources told Forum 18 News Service, a religious-freedom group based in Oslo, Norway. The court ordered Bibles and hymnbooks confiscated during the raid to be burnt, a regular official practice. The judge refused to discuss the case with Forum 18.
A senior policeman told church members complaining that he was smoking in the church, “It may be a church to you, but to me it's nothing. I'll smoke where I like.”
The Karshi Baptists called for Uzbekistan's harsh Religion Law to be brought into line with the religious freedom guarantees in the country's constitution and international human rights standards.