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Forum 18

@Forum_18

Monitoring & analysis of freedom of thought, conscience & belief violations in Central Asia, Russia, South Caucasus, Belarus, Occupied Ukraine

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Joined February 2012
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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Uzbekistan: 5-year jail term for posting Shia Muslim songs on Telegram channel forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
UZBEKISTAN: 5-year jail term for posting Shia Muslim songs on Telegram channel

UZBEKISTAN: 5-year jail term for posting Shia Muslim songs on Telegram channel

Police arrested 22-year-old Shia Muslim Sunnatillo Akparov on 23 June and took him to Kattakurgan Investigation Prison. On 7 October, Samarkand District Criminal Court jailed him for five years for...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Belarus: "Forbidden" to give information on Catholic priest's 3-year jail term forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
BELARUS: "Forbidden" to give information on Catholic priest's 3-year jail term

BELARUS: "Forbidden" to give information on Catholic priest's 3-year jail term

Masked men – apparently KGB officers – arrested Catholic priest Fr Anatol Parakhnevich in March. After months under investigation on treason charges, a Minsk Region court jailed him for 3 years in...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Russia: Alleged participants in activities of "undesirable organisations" fined forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
RUSSIA: Alleged participants in activities of "undesirable organisations" fined

RUSSIA: Alleged participants in activities of "undesirable organisations" fined

A Moscow Region court fined religious freedom researcher Olga Sibiryova of the Sova Centre for Information and Analysis after her work was allegedly cited by a foreign organisation deemed "undesira...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Kazakhstan: Health concerns over Xinjiang exile awaiting jailing next year forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
KAZAKHSTAN: Health concerns over Xinjiang exile awaiting jailing next year

KAZAKHSTAN: Health concerns over Xinjiang exile awaiting jailing next year

Guldaria Sherizat's health "has deteriorated severely, she is physically exhausted, and she is under tremendous psychological stress", her family told Forum 18. The 48-year-old ethnic Kazakh origin...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Kazakhstan: Anti-war independent Orthodox priest given 4-year jail term forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
KAZAKHSTAN: Anti-war independent Orthodox priest given 4-year jail term

KAZAKHSTAN: Anti-war independent Orthodox priest given 4-year jail term

After 8 months in detention, an Almaty court jailed 40-year-old independent Orthodox priest Fr Yakov Vorontsov for 4 years on drug-related charges on 7 October after a closed trial. "In the house...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Kyrgyzstan: Adventists fined, but Investigator "would keep them in prison if it depended on me" forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
KYRGYZSTAN: Adventists fined, but Investigator "would keep them in prison if it depended on me"

KYRGYZSTAN: Adventists fined, but Investigator "would keep them in prison if it depended on me"

Days after deporting True and Free Adventist leader Pavel Shreider, Prosecutors began another criminal case against Church members. House searches, literature seizures, interrogations and "intercep...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom Occupied #Ukraine: Baptist community banned, alongside Jehovah's Witnesses, Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Greek Catholics forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Baptist community banned, alongside Jehovah's Witnesses, Orthodox Church of...

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Baptist community banned, alongside Jehovah's Witnesses, Orthodox Church of...

While court-ordered bans on religious communities meeting without informing the authorities are well-established in Russia, in the first known case in Russian-occupied Ukraine a Luhansk court banned...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom Occupied #Ukraine: Baptist Pastor due for deportation now Luhansk Supreme Court rejected suit forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Baptist Pastor due for deportation now Luhansk Supreme Court rejected suit

OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Baptist Pastor due for deportation now Luhansk Supreme Court rejected suit

After 67 years' residence in Krasnodon (now in Russian-occupied Luhansk Region), Council of Churches Baptist Pastor Vladimir Rytikov faces deportation from Russian-occupied Ukraine and Russia. On 6...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Russia: "Refusal to acknowledge notification requirement hinders state oversight" forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
RUSSIA: "Refusal to acknowledge notification requirement hinders state oversight"

RUSSIA: "Refusal to acknowledge notification requirement hinders state oversight"

Courts in 7 Regions are known to have banned the activity of 12 Council of Churches Baptist communities because they meet for worship without state registration or notification of their existence to...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Kazakhstan: Hidden camera, "special measures", "expert analyses", trial – jail to follow? forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
KAZAKHSTAN: Hidden camera, "special measures", "expert analyses", trial – jail to follow?

KAZAKHSTAN: Hidden camera, "special measures", "expert analyses", trial – jail to follow?

Zhakipbek Ormanov and 8 other Muslims are on criminal trial in Taldykorgan accused of membership of the banned Muslim missionary movement Tabligh Jamaat. They face up to two years' imprisonment. The...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Uzbekistan: Shia Muslim's trial begins for religious songs on Telegram channel forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
UZBEKISTAN: Shia Muslim's trial begins for religious songs on Telegram channel

UZBEKISTAN: Shia Muslim's trial begins for religious songs on Telegram channel

22-year-old Sunnatillo Akparov faces 5 to 8 years' imprisonment if convicted for distributing marthiyas (Shia musical lamentations) on a Shia Telegram channel he ran. His trial at Samarkand District...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Azerbaijan: More than 50 prosecutions in 2026 for unapproved religious meetings forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
AZERBAIJAN: More than 50 prosecutions in 2026 for unapproved religious meetings

AZERBAIJAN: More than 50 prosecutions in 2026 for unapproved religious meetings

A court in Baku's Binagadi District fined 8 Muslims two months' average wage each for holding "religious meetings and other religious activities in a private house". A court in Absheron District...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Armenia: "The National Assembly has no authority to consider internal Church matters" forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
ARMENIA: "The National Assembly has no authority to consider internal Church matters"

ARMENIA: "The National Assembly has no authority to consider internal Church matters"

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's Civil Contract party committed itself in its manifesto to unilaterally removing the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin. After winning the...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Russia: Prosecutions for cooperation with "undesirable organisations" forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
RUSSIA: Prosecutions for cooperation with "undesirable organisations"

RUSSIA: Prosecutions for cooperation with "undesirable organisations"

The General Prosecutor's Office is ruling that ever more foreign organisations – including some with religious affiliation – threaten Russia's security. The Justice Ministry then adds them to its...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Kyrgyzstan: Trials imminent for detained Reform Adventists? forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
KYRGYZSTAN: Trials imminent for detained Reform Adventists?

KYRGYZSTAN: Trials imminent for detained Reform Adventists?

Trial dates are likely to be set in early September for four more True and Free Reform Adventists. The regime banned the Church in 2025 after jailing the leader. The four are accused of producing or...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Ukraine: Mobilised conscientious objector "killed or not properly looked after"? forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
UKRAINE: Mobilised conscientious objector "killed or not properly looked after"?

UKRAINE: Mobilised conscientious objector "killed or not properly looked after"?

On 1 January, one month after masked Recruitment Office officials seized him, 40-year-old Pentecostal conscientious objector Yevhen Nabraklo died in a Rivne hospital, allegedly of "acute purulent...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Belarus: Criminal cases against exiled religious freedom defenders forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
BELARUS: Criminal cases against exiled religious freedom defenders

BELARUS: Criminal cases against exiled religious freedom defenders

Police launched criminal cases against two more religious freedom defenders who live outside Belarus: Sergiy Melyanets in January, and Natallia Vasilevich in April. Protestant preacher Melyanets...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Uzbekistan: Prison term awaits arrested Shia for online religious posts? forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
UZBEKISTAN: Prison term awaits arrested Shia for online religious posts?

UZBEKISTAN: Prison term awaits arrested Shia for online religious posts?

In late June, amid a crackdown on Shia Muslims in Samarkand, Police arrested the 22-year-old owner of a Shia-related Telegram channel Sunnatillo Akparov. They accuse him of posting marthiyas (Shia...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Armenia: Trial of Catholicos, six bishops "violates" Church's "right of autonomy" forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
ARMENIA: Trial of Catholicos, six bishops "violates" Church's "right of autonomy"

ARMENIA: Trial of Catholicos, six bishops "violates" Church's "right of autonomy"

The criminal trial of seven senior bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church, including its leader Catholicos Karekin, is due to begin at Armavir Region First Instance Court on the afternoon of 7...

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#HumanRights #FoRB #ReligiousFreedom #Russia: Court challenges to denials of alternative service often fail forum18.org/archive.php?arti…
RUSSIA: Court challenges to denials of alternative service often fail

RUSSIA: Court challenges to denials of alternative service often fail

Three Pentecostal conscientious objectors in Udmurtiya failed to overturn Conscription Commissions' rejections of their applications for alternative civilian service. The court agreed with the...

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