Forum 18: Uzbekistan

"20 June 2006
UZBEKISTAN: 'VERY REAL' THREAT OF PROTESTANT PASTOR'S ARREST
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=803

Amid rising government persecution of Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses and other religious minorities in Uzbekistan, a Protestant pastor from Andijan [Andijon] faces up to twenty years' imprisonment if prosecutors go ahead with a trial for treason, Protestants have told Forum 18 News Service. Dmitry Shestakov, known as David, who leads a registered Full Gospel Pentecostal congregation in the city, has gone into hiding for fear of arrest. 'It's unclear exactly which article I'm to be prosecuted under,' he told Forum 18 from his place of hiding on 20 June, adding that he has learnt that the Prosecutor's Office might have changed the accusation to one of inciting religious hatred, which carries a five year maximum prison term. 'The one thing I can say with certainty is that the threat of arrest is very real.' An official of the Andijan regional Prosecutor's Office told Forum 18 that the number for the investigator in the case, Kamolitdin Zulfiev, is secret. Were Shestakov to be given a long prison term it would represent a major escalation of moves against religious minorities."