In Uzbekistan, Poor Jail Conditions, Torture and Large Fines for Protestants

By Jeremy Reynalds, Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service (jeremyreynalds@gmail.com ) 

UZBEKISTAN. (ANS-APRIL 18. 2016) -- Latipzhon Mamazhanov, a Protestant who was arrested and jailed on March 12 for 15 days in Fergana in eastern Uzbekistan, was released from jail on March 28.

Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia. It is bordered by five countries: Kazakhstan to the north, Tajikistan to the southeast, Kyrgyzstan to the northeast, Afghanistan to the south and Turkmenistan to the southwest.

This is one day after he should have been released under the law, a story by Mushfig Nayram from Forum 18 News Service reported.

Police illegally raided Mamazhanov's home and those of other Christians in Fergana on March 12 searching for religious literature.

Mamazhanov was imprisoned in the Region's Kuva District Police Detention Center.

Forum 18 said that’s where as many as seven inmates were put in a cell designed for two people, no sanitary and hygiene rules are followed, and food given only once a day. Mamazhanov and other prisoners who insisted they were innocent of crimes were also tortured several times.

“They can keep one Bible in their homes,” Rustam Yegamberdiyev, Head of Fergana City Criminal Police, insisted to Forum 18.

He added, “But if they keep more than one then this means that they are intending to gather others in their homes for illegal prayers and meetings. It is exactly the same for Christians, Muslims and others.”

For more information visit www.forum18.org

Photo captions: 1) Uzbek Christians meeting secretly. 2) Jeremy and Elma Reynalds.

About the writer: Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, www.joyjunction.org. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "From Destitute to Ph.D." Additional details on "From Destitute to Ph.D." are available at www.myhomelessjourney.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Elma. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@gmail.com .

Note: If you would like to help support the ASSIST News Service, please go to www.assistnews.net and click on the DONATE button to make your tax-deductible gift (in the US), which will help us continue to bring you these important stories. If you prefer a check, please make it out to ASSIST and mail it to: PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609, USA. Thank you.

** You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)