In Depth:  F18 News (www.forum18.org)

In early May, police in Navoi Region of central Uzbekistan stopped four Protestants from various churches who were travelling together by car from Samarkand to Navoi.

‘We understood that the police were informed of their arrival in town and were waiting for them there’, a fellow Protestant from the capital Tashkent said on 15 May. Officers at Karmana District police station then interrogated the four men, torturing one until he lost consciousness and threatening to rape another. The Criminal Police are believed to have already handed administrative cases against the four to court, the Protestant added.

A woman from the Tashkent region is trying to challenge a fine handed down to her for exposing her son to ‘illegal’ religious education, it was reported in late January.

The petition points out that her son was only taking art lessons with two women who happen to be members of a protestant congregation. Five other parents were also fined.