Kazakhstan: Never too old to be fined for faith

Two grandmothers in their 70s were among seven Baptists fined for participating in an unregistered religious meeting in a private home in eastern Kazakhstan on April 4.

Each was fined the equivalent of one to two months' average wages for local state employees, according to verdicts seen by Forum 18 News Service, a religious freedom monitoring organization based in Oslo, Norway.

Forum 18 asked a judges' assistant at the district court in the town of Ayagoz whether the judges and court officials were embarrassed over punishing religious believers for meeting for prayer. The assistant refused comment. Read more