Ten years after acquiring a disused kindergarten, in the small town of Alga near the north-western city of Aktobe, a New Life Protestant congregation is about to lose its building.
A local official told Forum 18 News Service that the authorities have lodged a second legal case to have the church evicted.
"If a miracle does not happen the authorities will confiscate the building," a church member told Forum 18 from Alga on 16 April. He added that the pastor of the church, Zholaman Nurmanov, was summoned by the local police who demanded that he produce evidence concerning which organisation has sent him and what his title is. "He was ordered to do this very quickly," the church member reported.
Members of religious communities have expressed fears to Forum 18 that the
moves against the property of the New Life Church is part of a wider state
campaign to seize back property acquired by communities in good faith in the last 15 years.
Aleksandr Klyushev of the Association of Religious Organisations of Kazakhstan said he was not sure whether there was a targeted state campaign to expropriate property from religious communities, but saw a definite tightening of state control over religious organisations.
"The authorities are scrutinising all the details, including over the property of religious organisations," he told Forum 18 from the capital Astana on 25 April.
The New Life Church may not have followed all the legal procedures correctly while legalising ownership of their property, Klyushev said. But he also pointed to the Salem Protestant Church of Almaty, which is facing official questioning of its property ownership although, he insisted, everything is in order with its documents.
New Life's Pastor Nurmanov played down the police check-up to Forum 18 on
22 April saying that the police usually check up on organisations, and it
was nothing serious. But he said his major concern was their building. "We
are pressured by the local Akimat (Executive Authority) to give up the
building," he said, "but we are not being offered a new place."
