Tashkent, Uzbekistan - Judge Eshemarat Atajanov has vigorously defended to Forum 18 News Service his imposition of massive fines for unregistered religious activity – even though the international human rights standards Uzbekistan has acceded to allow unregistered activity. He imposed massive fines on three local Protestant leaders in early July, in the town of Muinak in the north-western autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan [Qoraqalpoghiston], solely for running an unregistered church.
"The activity of unregistered religious communities is forbidden in Uzbekistan," he told Forum 18 from Muinak on 14 July. "But Salauat Serikbayev, Jumabai Senetullayev and Lepes Omarov still continued the activity of their illegal community, in spite of countless warnings." The three were each given fines of about 552,000 Uzbek Soms [2,840 Norwegian Kroner, 360 Euros, or 450 US Dollars], more than 50 times the minimum monthly wage in a town noted for its poverty. The average monthly salary, for the entire country, was estimated in 2005 to be around 60 US Dollars.
Judge Atajanov explained the size of the fines by saying that the three Protestants had broken Article 240 of the Code of Administrative Offences several times previously.
Fines under Article 240 of the Code of Administrative Offences - which punishes "breaking the Law on Religious Organisations" – were increased tenfold last December as the latest crackdown on religious activity began in earnest. Fines for breaking this article are now 50 to 100 times the minimum monthly wage.
Religious activity is particularly difficult in Karakalpakstan. The regional authorities have banned the activity of all non-Muslim and non-Orthodox religious communities by denying them official registration. Under Uzbekistan's harsh laws on religion – and in defiance of the country's international human rights commitments – all unregistered religious activity is illegal and punishable under the Criminal and Administrative Codes. Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishna devotees have faced particular persecution in Karakalpakstan. Protestant students in the regional capital Nukus have long been singled out for pressure.
Protestant sources told Forum 18 that on 3 July, Judge Atajanov found Serikbayev, the unregistered Pentecostal church's 31-year-old pastor, and Senetullayev, a 43-year-old church leader, guilty of breaking Article 240. As well as suffering fines, both had Christian literature confiscated: five Bibles, five New Testaments, 54 Christian books which had been brought into Uzbekistan through official channels, and the "Jesus Film" on video (a dramatisation of St Luke's Gospel).
Religious literature confiscated by the authorities has often been burnt and religious literature censorship has recently been tightened.
A criminal case had been brought against Omarov in June under Article 216-2 of the criminal code, which punishes "breaking the law on religious organisations" with up to three years' imprisonment. Christian literature was also seized from his home. "In the end the criminal case against Omarov was changed into an administrative prosecution," Judge Atajanov told Forum 18 without giving any explanation. "Serikbayev, Senetullayev and Omarov were sentenced to identical fines under Article 240 of the code of administrative offences."
It remains unclear how the three Protestants will be able to pay these enormous fines. While Uzbekistan's minimum monthly wage is currently 9,500 Soms (49 Norwegian Kroner, 6 Euros, or 8 US Dollars), few in the town of Muinak earn more than 20 dollars a month. Karakalpakstan is the poorest region in Uzbekistan, while Muinak is in decline following the ecological disaster around the Aral Sea. A former port which is now 100 kilometres (60 miles) away as the sea has receded, the town faces unemployment of 80 per cent.
The Muinak Pentecostal church – like all other Protestant churches in Karakalpakstan - has long faced hostility from local officials, including police raids and torture of individual church members. "In effect we are being forced to live like the early Christians of the catacombs," Pastor Serikbayev told Forum 18 back in 2003. "We have to hold our religious meetings in the desert, several kilometres from the town, for fear of persecution by the authorities."
The government's intensive new crackdown on religious activity has seen registration stripped from an estimated dozen Protestant churches this year, repeated raids on religious communities of many faiths, increased fines for peaceful religious activity, increased penalties for publishing, distributing and importing religious literature the government regards as "illegal", expulsion of foreigners engaged in religious activity, and the closure of charities affiliated with or which the government suspects of being affiliated with religious communities.