An operational agent of the KNB, under the pseudonym Medvedev and with authorization of the office of prosecutor, infiltrated the audience and covertly recorded four lectures.

Her teaching must have appeared to the undercover KNB agents to be dangerous to listeners from the standpoint of their potential implications for overthrowing the constitutional order, for violating the integrity of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and for propagating religious and other types of conflict.

This is how the agent continues to analyze the content of the lectures: ”The materials

presented contain a) propagands demeaning persons for signs of their ethnic affinity and b) propaganda demeaning persons for signs of their class affinity. Moreover it shows signs of harmful effects on individual, family, society, and likewise the moral integrity of the state.”

Evgeniy Zhovtis, the chief of the Kazakhstan International Bureau of Human Rights, summed up the situation: ”You could hardly imagine a better way to discredit our country.” In his opinion, this trial clearly portrays the level and stature of the Kazakh government agencies from the bottom up. The teaching does not contain great differences from the other religions. Do we have to worry now, that the government starts putting also priests, monks and nuns into jails?

Mr. Zhovits continues: ”For in fact this is the nation which is slated to occupy the chair at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010, the nation which is bragging all over the place about its experience in resolving international conflicts! The fact that such a trial even got under way is truly a disgrace. Shame on a country that has suffered so much due to religious persecution that one can scarcely even imagine?”

The expert on human rights is referring to Kazakhstan’s expected OSCE Presidency in 2010. This has not been confirmed yet, since a proposed new law on religion has caused an outrage of critique from the international human rights community as well as from OSCE itself. The draft of the law is said to fail the OSCE standards of human rights by far. That may well be the main reason why the passing of the law is still on hold.

In October at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (Warsaw) Kazakhstan was heavily rebuked by various human rights defenders and NGOs for restrictive measures on religious communities and the proposed law. One of the examples for that practice was the tearing down of the only Krishna Temple in the country.

Now a young missionary women has been jailed for doing nothing else but practicing her religious duties in proclaiming her faith.

Source: Foref
 

YouTube video on the trial in Russian with English subtitles:
 

2008

youtube: Tragedy of Hare Krishna in Kazakhstan

SperoNews
US Embassy in Kazakhstan
US Commission on International Religious Freedom
Moscow News

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