Two Christian families in Uzbekistan who meet in a private home to read the Bible and pray together are being harassed by the authorities. They have been repeatedly fined and had property confiscated.
Alisher Abdullayev and Veniamin Nemirov were fined along with another member of their church in October 2012 for unregistered religious activity and teaching religion “illegally” following a raid on a meeting in Veniamin’s home in the central Samarkhand region.
They have refused to pay the fines on principle, so items of their private property were confiscated by the authorities earlier this year. On 26 March, two bailiffs came to Alisher’s home and seized a vacuum cleaner, electric heater and mobile phone. Then on 7 April, the same two bailiffs went to Veniamin’s home and confiscated the family car. Neither of the men was home at the time of the raids.
They both have large families; Alisher has six children and Veniamin twelve. The latter, who has a very low income, complained that the confiscations were illegal as the authorities have a one-year time limit to penalise the non-payment of a fine.
Read more at http://barnabasfund.org/US/News/News-analysis/Two-Christian-families-penalised-for-gatherings-in-private-home.html