Forum 18
...4 July 2025 RUSSIA: Buddhist leader given longest known anti-war jail term A Moscow court jailed Buddhist leader Ilya Vasilyev on 25 June for eight years for allegedly disseminating "knowingly false information" about Russia's Armed Forces, the longest known prison term for opposing Russia's war against Ukraine on religious grounds. "We called for the voice of reason, but it seems the judge ......
https://forum18.org/
OCCUPIED UKRAINE - Forum 18
...In early 2024, Russian occupation forces arrested a Protestant in her fifties for participating in a July 2023 prayer meeting in the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol. Prosecutors handed her criminal case to Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional Court. In the same court is the criminal case against Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest Kostiantyn Maksimov for alleged "espionage". On 27 April ......
https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2908
BELARUS: "They decided to fabricate a case and accuse him of espionage"
...On 1 April, the Supreme Court rejected Catholic priest Henryk Okolotovich's appeal against his 11-year jail term on treason charges. Both his trial and appeal were closed. In a message from prison, he denied "espionage for Poland and the Vatican". He rejected pressure to implicate the country's Catholic bishops. "Priests are being persecuted to shut our mouths, so that the Catholic Church does ......
https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2975
OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Orthodox priest's 14-year "espionage" jail term
...At a closed hearing at the Russian-controlled Crimean Supreme Court in Simferopol on 2 August, Zaporizhzhia Regional Court jailed 41-year-old Ukrainian Orthodox priest Fr Kostiantyn Maksimov in a strict regime labour camp for 14 years on "espionage" charges. "I'm in such shock," his mother Svetlana Maksimova told Forum 18. He is likely to be illegally transferred to Russia after any appeal. On ......
https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2924
Forum 18 - Ukraine - Page 2 of 11
...21 August 2024 UKRAINE: Real threats, but freedom of religion or belief concerns Clerics and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC) have and are facing criminal charges of justifying Russian aggression and hate speech. Many have been prosecuted for criticising the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the state's religious policies. The state faces a real threat ......
https://forum18.org/archive.php?country=88&page=2
UZBEKISTAN: President to sign restrictive new Religion Law?
...Uzbekistan's new Religion Law [signed by the President 5 July, came into force 6 July] maintains almost all the restrictions on freedom of religion and belief in the current Religion Law. It continues to ban: all exercise of freedom of religion and belief without state permission; teaching about religion without state permission; sharing beliefs; and publishing, distributing or importing ......
https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2670
AZERBAIJAN - Forum 18
...On 22 September, a Goranboy court jailed 22-year-old Jehovah's Witness Seymur Mammadov for nine months for refusing compulsory military service on conscientious grounds. On 25 July ? two days after his 18th birthday ? officers seized conscientious objector Royal Karimov and forcibly took him to a military unit in Ganca, where he is still held. Baku's Sabail District Court extended to March ......
https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2776