KAZAKHSTAN: Complaint against church "under pressure and dictation from police"

In November, police raided a Baptist church's worship meeting in Balpyk-Bi, blocking the doors. Those present rejected pressure to write statements. When church leaders refused to register the church, police took administrative cases to court, but a judge dismissed them in December. In September, police visited a Baptist church in Shu. A woman who complained that the church was teaching children later admitted she wrote the complaint "under pressure and dictation from the police". Police interrogated a pastor's child in school in the parents' absence. Police in both cases refused to comment.