Source: World Watch Monitor, September 2, 2016
Finally, their journey is over. Three years since fleeing Uzbekistan—following four years in a labor camp, house arrest, and death threats—Pastor Dmitry Shestakov has arrived in the United States, where he and his family have been granted asylum.
It’s been almost 10 years since Shestakov was first detained, after a raid on his Full Gospel Church in Andijan, southeastern Uzbekistan.
When eventually he was released, only two church members went to collect him.
“No one else dared to come, because they’re afraid to attract unwanted attention due to their connection with him,” a charity worker with Open Doors, which advocates for Christians like Shestakov, said afterwards. “Pastor Dmitry has to be very careful and everything he does will be strictly monitored. This includes the people he will be talking to, everything he says, everywhere he goes, and much more.”
Shestakov himself said he had been “ordered to follow strict guidelines and regulations.” He added: “I am a pastor and I want to serve God, but I have to find a wise way to do this.”
But two years later it became apparent that staying in Uzbekistan was no longer possible. After being made to ask the police for written permission to leave his house, and then receiving death threats, Dmitry Shestakov took his family to Ukraine, where they were granted refugee status by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
» See also another report from Open Doors, this one describing tensions surrounding the faith of another Central Asian believer who apparently has remained in the region.