A pastor in Tajikistan sentenced to three years in prison for ‘singing extremist songs in church and so inciting religious hatred’ was freed three months early in December.
Bakhrom Kholmatov, 42, was sentenced in July 2017 after being arrested by the National Security Committee (NSC, also known as the secret police).
Members of the church claimed they were harassed and tortured by secret police after the arrest of their pastor.
Kholmatov was arrested on unspecified charges during an April 2017 raid on his church. Affiliated churches in the region had also been raided and closed down earlier that year.
Kholmatov said ‘I’d like to express my huge gratitude to all the people who supported and prayed for me, my family and my church. All these three years I felt your prayers, they helped me to stand, they helped my precious wife and children, they helped the members of my church who were left without a pastor, then kicked by the authorities out of our building. Your prayers helped us to stand strong through all these difficulties, to grow spiritually and to transform into the nature of our Heavenly Lord!’
The Tajik authorities have threatened family, friends and other church members if they reveal any details of the case, trial or imprisonment. But it says Kholmatov was sentenced under Criminal Code Article 189 (‘Inciting national, racial, local or religious hatred or dissension, humiliation of national dignity, as well as propaganda of the superiority of citizens based on their religion, national, racial, or local origin, if committed in public or using the mass media’).
The extremist charges were brought against Kholmatov after the NSC claimed songs based on certain Bible passages are extremist and call on people to overthrow the government.
A book seized from the church – More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell – was also claimed to be extremist, as judged by religious experts working for the NSC.
Mukhsin Mirkamolov, Khujand City Administration’s chief religious affairs official, said that the court that tried Kholmatov ‘was not prejudiced against him as a Christian … All religions are equal and free in Tajikistan.’
