Barnabas Fund, which supports Christians in Islamic nations, said Bobur Aslamov was released April 9, some six days after security forces broke up the gathering in the central city of Samarkand, saying it was an "unauthorized religious meeting."
All other Christians detained with him were already freed earlier, Barnabas Fund and other sources said. Barnabas Fund said however that Aslamov could still face 15 days of detention or a large fine.
"The only charges against him now are administrative charges for holding religious meetings without official registration," the group added. Church members were allegedly beaten during the operation and police seized Christian literature, as well as a laptop computer, several Protestants said.
CHRISTIANS STILL PERSECUTED
It was not immediately clear when and if the church items will be returned. Barnabas Fund also cautioned that besides the group in Samarkand, the birthplace of autocratic President Islam Abduganiyevich Karimov, other Christians "still face increasing persecution and harassment from authorities."
Uzbek law bans all unregistered religious activity, and several Protestant-leaning Christians, including Baptists and other evangelical believers, have been targeted by police and other law enforcement agencies in the former Soviet republic.
Other religious groups, including Jews and even some Muslims, have also been harassed by police, said human rights group Forum 18 recently.
In a recent report, the United States State Department said that the “status of religious freedom remained restricted with a specific decline for some Pentecostal and other Christian groups."
MINORITY GROUPS HARASSED
In its International Religious Freedom Report 2007, it noted that, "A number of minority religious groups, including congregations of some Christian denominations, continued to operate without registration because they had not satisfied the strict registration requirements set out by the law."
As in previous periods, the State Department said, "Protestant groups with ethnic Uzbek members reported operating in a climate of harassment and fear."
Critics have linked the attacks to the autocratic style of President Karimov and his attempts to control the religious and political areas of society to remain in power. In 2005 a crackdown on protest in the eastern city of Andijan resulted in the deaths of several hundred people.
Uzbekistan’s authorities have rejected criticism of their human rights record. The government has also condemned European Union sanctions, saying the decision was unfounded, biased and an "instrument of systematic pressure… dressed up in human rights rhetoric".
