Kazakhstan’s authorities are known to have brought at least 143 administrative prosecutions in 2022 — an average of 12 per month — to punish individuals and organizations for their exercise of freedom of religion or belief. Of these, 130 ended with convictions and punishments. Almost all of the punishments included fines of between several weeks’ and several months’ average wages. In two cases, courts ordered religious literature to be destroyed. Administrative prosecutions have continued in 2023.

More than a third of the 2022 cases were to punish individuals for posting religious messages, texts and recordings on their social media accounts without state permission. In one case a journalist was initially fined – changed to a verbal warning – for posting her interview with a state-approved imam. The next biggest set of cases punished individuals for offering religious literature for sale without state permission, either in shops or online. For the first time in recent years, two individuals were punished for having religious books, although this is not an offense.

The 143 known administrative cases in 2022 show an increase from 2021 in the number of prosecutions. However, the true number of such administrative cases is likely to be higher.

The 143 known administrative prosecutions for exercising freedom of religion and belief in the 2022 calendar year compare with:

— 130 in 2021;

— 134 in 2020;

— 168 in 2019;

— 171 in 2018;

— and 284 in 2017.

The August 2022 court decision in the case of Eldar Samarkhanov in Oral (Uralsk) explains the state’s purpose in punishing people for exercising freedom of religion or belief in ways the state has not given permission for.

“Administrative punishment is used for the purpose of educating the person who committed the offense,” the court decision says, “in the spirit of compliance with the requirements of legislation and respect for law and order, as well as to prevent the offender from committing new offenses, both themselves and others. The administrative penalty should be fair, appropriate to the nature of the offense, the circumstances of its commission, and the personality of the offender.”

Forum 18 tried to find out from the government’s Human Rights Commissioner Artur Lastayev why individuals and organizations are punished for exercising freedom of religion or belief. His phone went unanswered. Press Secretary Gulnara Baigeldi insisted that questions must be put in writing.

Forum 18 asked in writing on the afternoon of March 30 why people are fined for religious meetings, selling or importing religious books, posting religious materials on social media and praying in mosques with the word “Amen.” Forum 18 asked why courts give orders to confiscate and destroy religious books and order deportation for foreign nationals if they speak about their faith.

Forum 18 also asked how many appeals regarding such administrative punishments were there to the office of the Human Rights Commissioner in 2022, what the commissioner does to protect the right of individuals to freedom of religion or belief and what recommendations he gave (if any) to the government to remove provisions in the Administrative Code specifying punishment for those who exercise their right to freedom of religion or belief.

Forum 18 received no response from the human rights commissioner’s office by the end of the working day in Astana of March 31. (The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions gives the human rights commissioner’s office B status as it is not independent of the government.)

No one was available at the government’s Religious Affairs Committee in the capital Astana to explain to Forum 18 why individuals and organizations continue to be punished for exercising freedom of religion or belief.

Beimbet Manetov, head of the Religious Affairs Committee’s Department of Law Enforcement Practice in the Field of Religious Activities, insisted to Forum 18 in February 2022 that individuals had to be fined if they break the law. Asked why courts punish individuals for exercising freedom of religion or belief, he responded, “I can’t comment on court decisions.”

Manetov added that his committee has completed draft amendments to Administrative Code Article 490 (which punishes violations of the Religion Law) which are now with the Justice Ministry. These would introduce a warning for a first “offense,” with fines only for further “offenses.” They would also halve the level of the fines. Asked why Article 490 was not being completely abolished, he declined to say. “These are very good amendments and a liberalization which all support,” he claimed.

Punishments in 2022 included temporary bans on unspecified activity, verbal reprimands and fines for, among other things, posting religious materials online; selling Bibles, Qurans and icons online; teaching children to read the Quran without state permission; trying to import religious books; and saying the word “Amen” in mosques – and even having religious books, although this is not an offense. In two cases, courts ordered the destruction of religious texts, including a copy of the Muslim book “Gardens of the Righteousness” and a book on how to pray the “namaz.”

Commercial and private sellers, as well as Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Protestants, were among the targets of these prosecutions.

Fines were mostly the equivalent of between three weeks’ and four months’ average wages for those in formal work (35 to 200 monthly financial indicators, or MFIs, 107,205 Tenge to 612,600 Tenge in the 2022 calendar year).

Council of Churches Baptists – who refuse to seek state permission to exercise their right to freedom of religion or belief – noted that 2022 was the first in many years where neither courts nor police had fined them for exercising freedom of religion or belief. “There were no fines in 2022 – thank God,” Baptist Nikolai Novikov told Forum 18 from Oral (Uralsk) on March 30. His church’s Christmas service on Jan. 8, 2021, was raided by police, leading to two fines.

Police Departments for the Struggle with Extremism hunt “offenders”

In 2022, Police Departments for the Struggle with Extremism are recorded in 22 court decisions as discovering that individuals have committed an “offense,” though they may have been involved in more without this being noted in court decisions.

The government’s censorship of religious literature and objects restricts both what can be sold or offered, and where it can be sold or offered.

“Illegal” online sales

At least nine individuals are known to have been prosecuted in 2021 for offering religious books or materials for sale online. This represents a fall in the number of such cases in the previous three years: (18 in 2021, 29 in 2020, 24 in 2019, 18 in 2018, 10 in 2017).

Many were punished for offering such materials for sale on the online shopping site Olx.kz.

Among the items Olx.kz lists on the help section of its website as being illegal to sell are “religious literature, other informational materials of religious content and items of religious significance.” The website appears to have added this information in late 2020, after a number of prosecutions that year.

Many court decisions punishing individuals for offering religious books or items for sale on Olx.kz or Instagram note that such a platform is “a place not associated with a special stationary premises for distribution of religious literature in accord with a decree of the Akimat (administration).”

Destroying books

Police and other officials often seize religious books and materials when they initiate administrative cases involving religious literature and items. Some court decisions note that the literature and items are to be returned once any fine is paid. Other court decisions do not say what would happen to the books. In many cases, courts order seized religious literature to be returned.

In two known cases in 2022, courts ordered religious literature to be destroyed. Although Judge Aizhan Primbetova at Karaganda Inter-District Specialised Administrative Court closed the case on May 31, 2022, against Ruslan Aliyev, she ordered one copy of the Muslim book “Gardens of the Righteous” by 13th-century scholar Imam al-Nawawi seized during a house search to be destroyed. The Religious Affairs Committee “expert” analysis said it was banned in Kazakhstan. Forum 18 was unable to reach Judge Primbetova at the court on March 31.

Similarly, on Sept. 12, 2022, Judge Gulmira Suieuova of Aktau Specialised Administrative Court ordered three Islamic books – including one on how to pray the namaz — seized from commercial seller Dilora Adilova to be destroyed. She had been offering them for sale in a shop without state permission.

In three known cases in 2020, courts ordered seized religious books to be destroyed. In 2019, such court orders to destroy seized religious literature were more common. In one case in Kyzylorda, 29 Muslim books seized from a commercial seller were ordered destroyed.

Human rights defender Yevgeny Zhovtis of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law described court-ordered book destruction to Forum 18 in 2015 as “barbarism.”

Targeting ethnic Dungan Quran teachers

Two Muslims from the ethnic Dungan minority in the Kordai district of the southern Zhambyl region who taught the Quran and Islam to local children were among the six individuals known to have been punished in 2022 for teaching their faith without state permission.

The prosecution of the two brings to 13 the number of ethnic Dungan Muslims from Kordai district punished by Kordai District Court under Administrative Code Article 490, Part 3, for teaching children to read the Quran without state permission since August 2018.

Maksat Erezhepov, head of Kordai District Police, denied to Forum 18 in April 2021 that there was any “ethnic factor” in the prosecutions.

Punishments

Fines are the most common punishment, with fines for individuals mostly being between three weeks’ and two months’ average wages. For pensioners and those without formal work, such fines can be a heavy burden. Individuals who are punished for offering religious materials for sale online often tell the courts that they are desperately short of money and are trying to sell any property they no longer need. This does not stop judges from fining them.

In addition to fines, courts often ban individuals from activity for three months. Sometimes the ban is unspecific, leaving individuals unclear about what they can and cannot do. In other cases courts ban specific activities, for example distributing religious materials — which is in any case illegal without state permission. The hardest-hitting bans are on those running shops, as a three-month ban could leave owners and employees with no income.

Those who refuse or fail to pay fines can be placed on the list of debtors who are banned from leaving the country. Council of Churches Baptists refuse to pay fines on principle, arguing that they should not be punished for exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief. Many have spent years on the exit ban list.

Intimidation

In addition to the administrative cases actually brought, police and prosecutors often use the threat of such cases to intimidate individuals who have been exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief.

Jehovah’s Witnesses noted in late 2022 that 25 had been warned over alleged violation of Administrative Code Article 490 by engaging in “illegal missionary activity.” “The authorities required them and seven other Witnesses to write statements explaining why they sent letters or made phone calls as part of their evangelizing work and pressured them to discontinue the practice,” Jehovah’s Witnesses said.

Earlier punishment overturned

On Jan. 6, 2022, Kostanai Regional Court overturned the punishment handed down in April 2017 on Jehovah’s Witness Eduard Malykhin on charges of “missionary activity.” He had earlier taken his case to the Supreme Court, which had overturned a 2017 regional court decision.

Exit bans for earlier fines

When individuals fail or refuse to pay fines, their cases are handed to court bailiffs to recover the money. They can order funds to be deducted from wages, seize property in lieu and ban individuals from leaving the country until a fine is paid. Those who refuse to pay repeated fines can remain on the exit ban list for many years.

Council of Churches Baptists refuse to seek state permission to exercise freedom of religion or belief — as is their right under international human rights commitments. They also refuse to pay fines handed down to punish them for exercising freedom of religion or belief.

Several Council of Churches Baptists who have refused to pay earlier fines for exercising freedom of religion or belief have remained for years on the Justice Ministry list of those banned from leaving the country.

Nikolai Novikov from Oral told Forum 18 on March 31 that he is among three or four Council of Churches Baptists still banned from traveling abroad because of unpaid fines. Novikov has been repeatedly fined over many years for exercising freedom of religion or belief. He said his last deduction from his wages to pay the fine is due in April, and he will then be allowed to travel abroad for the first time since 2010.

‘I can’t comment on court decisions’

Forum 18 tried to find out from the government’s Religious Affairs Committee — part of the Information and Social Development Ministry in the capital Astana — why individuals and organizations continue to be punished for exercising freedom of religion or belief.

The telephone of Religious Affairs Committee Chair Yerzhan Nukezhanov went unanswered each time Forum 18 called on March 30 and 31. The man who answered the phone of Deputy Chair Anuar Khatiyev said he was on study leave until the summer and declined to comment himself. Meyirzhan Nurmukhanbetov, head of the Islamic Organizations Department, refused to comment, saying “I don’t work on administrative cases.” He referred all questions to Beimbet Manetov, head of the Department of Law Enforcement Practice in the Field of Religious Activities. However, his phone went unanswered on March 30 and 31.

Asked about the 2021 fines, Manetov insisted to Forum 18 on Feb. 1, 2022, that individuals had to be fined if they break the law. Asked why courts punish individuals for exercising freedom of religion or belief, he responded, “I can’t comment on court decisions.”

Punishments to be reduced, but not abolished?

Beimbet Manetov, head of the Department of Law Enforcement Practice in the Field of Religious Activities, told Forum 18 in February 2022 that the Religious Affairs Committee had completed long-promised draft amendments to Administrative Code Article 490, which punishes “violating the Religion Law”. If adopted in current form, these would introduce a warning for a first “offense,” with fines only for further “offenses.” They would also halve the level of the fines.

The Information and Social Development Ministry appears to have prepared these amendments in early 2021. Forum 18 has seen an initial text from July 2021.

Manetov told Forum 18 on Aug. 19, 2022, that the amendments to Administrative Code Article 490 to reduce fines and introduce the alternative of warnings were with the presidential administration for approval. He expected them to go to Parliament “fairly soon.”

Asked him why Article 490 cannot simply be abolished, Manetov responded, “It’s complicated — the Religion Law sets out all the provisions and the Administrative Code has to be in accordance with that, so the article cannot simply be abolished.”

This piece is republished from Forum 18.