Source: Forum18, January 22, 2014
Eight months after his arrest and despite his failing health, 67-year-old retired Presbyterian Pastor Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev was brought from prison in handcuffs [on the 22d of January] for the first hearing in his criminal trial in a court in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana. He faces charges of harming health, inciting hatred, propagating extremism, and leading an organization that harms others, Forum 18 News Service notes. The charges carry a maximum penalty of eight, seven, ten and six years’ imprisonment respectively. He denies all wrongdoing.
About 70 people were present in court to support retired pastor Kashkumbayev, among them foreign diplomats.
The alleged “religious extremism” is possession of two books entitled Healing the Broken Family of Abraham and “New Life for Muslims,” his lawyer told Forum 18.
ยป Read full story. For more about persecution in Kazakhstan and throughout Central Asia, see additional stories from Forum18 and the January 2014 issue of Persecution magazine (International Christian Concern).