A retired Presbyterian pastor in Kazakhstan has been released from prison. He has placed on three years’ probation. He has been told he cannot leave the country.
According to International Christian Concern retired Presbyterian Pastor Bakhytzhan Kashkumbavev received a four-year suspended prison term in the capital city of Astana.
Forum 18 news service reports he was convicted of harming the health of a church member, even though that church member has repeatedly insisted to the government authorities that she was in no way harmed.
According to Forum 18, the pastor was accused of harming the parishioner by “putting hallucinogens in the communion juice.”
Lyazzat Almenova, the only person whose health the state claims was harmed, has told Forum 18 in July of last year that the pastor is “totally innocent and has not harmed my health at all.”
The pastor was accused of “intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm by putting hallucinogens in the communion juice.”
The Pastor has also been ordered to pay the church member the equivalent of 10,800 US dollars.
International Christian Concern says the legal process involving the pastor has lasted nine months.
The pastor’s lawyer says the verdict was handed down orally.
“In my experience as a lawyer, this is one of the strangest cases I have seen in terms of legality,” commented Nurlan Beyesekevev, the pastors lawyer.
The lawyer says his client will appeal the verdict.
International Christian Concern says the pastor was released on three years’ probation. ICC says the pastor was tortured in prison.
According to ICC, the pastor was released but “found guilty” (a face-saving measure).
International Christian Concern says this could set a precedent.
Forum 18 reports that prosecutors have dropped four other charges made against the pastor during the two year investigation. Forum 18 says that on one of the charges a new criminal case could be launched. The state Agency of Religious Affairs (ARA) is concerned that the legal status of the pastor’s church may be threatened.
Pastor Kashkumbavev led the Grace Church in Astana until his retirement in October 2011. A criminal case was officially lodged against him on 11 Feb 2012. The pastor was not officially informed of the exact nature of the case until the 17 th May of 2013, when he was arrested.
International Christian Concern says that the pastor is not the only person from the Grace Protestant Church who has been having difficulty with government officials.
ICC says government officials collected information on all of the church’s regular attendants. Police also began calling and harassing past and present church-members.
ICC quotes one contact in the church as saying that police also demanded that members of the church make statements accusing Pastor Bakhytzhan Kashkumbavev of “forcibly coercing church attendance and monetary gifts from members.”
ICC says one member of the congregation was told by police that the church members are “worse than spies, because you bring Kazakhs to Christ.”
Corey Baily is ICC’s regional manager for Central Asia. She says “Christians and people of faith in Kazakhstan live in constant fear.” She says Kazahkstan claims to be a country of religious freedom, but since the religion law was introduced in 2011, all that has been seen in this country is a steep rise in the denial of basic human rights for the freedom of religion of its citizens. She says the International community “should be outraged.”
Earlier this week a Christian television broadcaster in Kazakhstan was prevented from leaving the country to travel to the U.S.
CBN reports Nishop Maxim Maximov, head of Kazakhstan’s New Life churches and founder of Russian language CNL-TV, was removed, along with his wife, by government agents from a U.S. bound flight.
Maximov has told CBN that he and his wife were then placed in detention.
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