KAZAKHSTAN: Kentau police use torture, murder threats
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 (11.09.2025) – On 13 August, Police in Kentau in the southern Turkestan Region detained Jehovah’s Witness Daniyar Tursynbayev. After six hours of interrogation and after repeated torture and murder threats, he admitted he had conducted “illegal missionary activity”. After release late in the evening, his friends took him to hospital to document his fractured rib and other injuries. He faces administrative charges in court on 15 September. If found guilty of “illegal missionary activity”, he would be due for a fine and – as an Uzbek citizen – deportation.
“This case is entirely based on confessions Kentau police officers extracted from Tursynbayev through the use of torture,” Jehovah’s Witnesses complained to Forum 18. “We are deeply concerned that Daniyar Tursynbayev could be deported, separating him from his wife and daughter, both of whom are citizens of Kazakhstan” (see below).
Baglan Yankin, Deputy Chief of Kentau Police Department, denied that anyone had tortured Tursynbayev. “This is not true. It is disinformation,” he told Forum 18 (see below).
Erkegali Meyirbekov, head of Kentau Police, did not reply to Forum 18’s questions about why its officers tortured Tursynbayev. Rustem Sabirzhanuly, head of Turkestan Regional Religious Affairs Department, told Forum 18 that he had just spoken to Kentau Police. “There was no beating at all, this is an absolute lie” (see below).
Jehovah’s Witnesses complained to Kentau Prosecutor’s Office about the torture, but it chose not to conduct an investigation. Turkestan Regional Police Department also failed to initiate any investigation. Kentau Town Court declared the prosecutor’s actions unlawful but declined to order an investigation (see below).
Forum 18 asked the National Preventive Mechanism in Astana whether it has taken up Tursynbayev’s case, what it has done (if anything) on his case, and why those who tortured Tursynbayev had not been arrested. Forum 18 received no immediate response (see below).
A few hours after it detained Tursynbayev, Kentau Police raided the home where the Jehovah’s Witness community meets. “Your actions are illegal. Stop your actions,” Baglan Yankin, Deputy Chief of Kentau Police Department, told those gathered. He insisted to them that he was speaking “on behalf of the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan”. He ordered those present to leave the premises (see below).
Police took three Jehovah’s Witnesses to the police station but freed them after several hours’ questioning (see below).
In July, Kentau Akimat (Administration) had tried through the court to have the activity of the registered Jehovah’s Witness community suspended. It failed on technical grounds. It did not respond to Forum 18’s question why it had sought the suspension of the legal entity’s activity (see below).
Jehovah’s Witnesses describe the attempt to suspend the community’s activity, the police raid and the detention and torture of Daniyar Tursynbayev as “an effort to intimidate the local religious community and interfere with its lawful activities”.
Photo: Daniyar Tursynbayev after torture at Kentau Police Station, 13 August 2025 Copyrights Jehovah’s Witnesses
