A pastor who has been tortured in a prison in Kyrgyzstan, according to U.N. special rapporteurs, has since suffered traumatic brain injuries that have left him cognitively impaired, according to Forum 18, a news site dedicated to reporting human rights and religious freedom violations worldwide.
Prison Chief Major Azat Kudaybergenov informed relatives of the Rev. Pavel Shreider, 65, a True and Free Reform Adventist pastor, in a Sept. 22 letter that doctors had examined him multiple times and diagnosed “traumatic brain injury” resulting in “cognitive impairment,” Forum 18 reports.
Serving a three-year prison sentence on fabricated charges of “inciting enmity,” Pastor Shreider has been transferred to Prison No. 31, a medical unit in the capital city of Bishkek, Forum 18 added. Vera Shreider, his daughter, appealed to Prison No. 21 officials on Sept. 12, pleading for medical care.
“As also seen from the official medical examination paper, he has developed encephalopathy, which is brain damage, and which has affected his general health,” the family stated. “We already saw him very weak during the Sept. 9 appeal hearing in the courtroom and in writing demanded that the prison authorities transfer him to the medical unit for treatment. They only transferred him more than two weeks later,” she told the news site.
The National Security Committee (NSC) secret police in November 2024 launched a raid on the pastor’s home in Bishkek and the homes of 10 church members before the arrests. Forum 18 reported that NSC secret police officers tortured both Pastor Shreider and three other church members during their post-arrest interrogations. Police officers denied the abuse.
“Five officers gave me blows on my head, chest and gave me kicks in my spine from behind,” Shreider wrote in a November 2024 complaint to the then-National Center for the Prevention of Torture, adding that officers “hit me with an iron pipe to force me to confess that I committed crimes.”
NSC secret police officers also used a stun gun to try to coerce church member Igor Tsoi to write a statement against Pastor Shreider, Forum 18 stated. The stun gun caused multiple injuries on Tsoi's body, but he refused to comply with their demands.
Five U.N. Special Rapporteurs, including Nazila Ghanea, special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, on July 23 wrote to the regime citing “arrests, detentions and alleged torture” of members of the True and Free Reform Adventist Church, as well as the subsequent criminal prosecution of Pastor Shreider.
“Serious allegations of torture and ill-treatment have been made with regard to Mr. Schreider and the other male members of the congregation during their detention,” the special rapporteurs stated to officials, Forum 18 reported.
“It is reported that the male and female members of the group witnessed [NSC secret police] officers striking the heads and bodies of the seven male members of the group, including Mr. Schreider, Mr. [Yuri] Pauls, Mr. Igor Tsoi, Mr. Peter Petkau, all of whom reported ill-treatment in detention. It is reported that Mr. Schreider and Mr. Tsoi were additionally subjected to strangulation with cellophane bags and the use of tasers.”
The Special Rapporteurs asked the regime for comments on their actions against the True and Free Adventists and about Pastor Shreider’s health. They also asked how his prosecution and the court-imposed ban on the church were “compatible with the international human rights obligations,” and what measures had been taken to “investigate the credible accusations” of torture against the four Church members.
The regime responded with a brief reply in Russian on Sept. 20, according to the U.N. Special Procedures communication website.
National Agency for Religious Affairs and Interethnic Relations Deputy Director Kanatbek Midin Uuly did not answer calls from Forum 18 and did not respond to written questions about the regime’s moves against the True and Free Reform Adventists.
Pastor Shreider’s family pointed to several factors that have caused his poor health, telling Forum 18 that the beating during his arrest was the most critical: “Firstly, he is of an older age. The prison regime is not conducive for his body movement or exercise and his blood circulation is bad. ... Secondly, he probably has stress every day because of his arrest. ... And lastly, and maybe most importantly, police officers beat him when he was arrested and gave him blows to his head.”
Church members had written to the United Nations in Geneva in December 2024, reporting the raids, detentions and torture, they told Forum 18.
No one has prosecuted those who tortured Pastor Shreider and the church members, Forum 18 reported. The then-National Center for the Prevention of Torture claimed that the torture “cannot be corroborated,” effectively dismissing the victims’ accounts.
Prison authorities finally transferred the pastor from Prison No. 21, where they held him for 10 months, to the secure medical facility on Sept. 25. Pastor Shreider’s transfer to a prison medical unit has delayed his appeal hearings at Bishkek City Court against his three-year jail term.
Church banned
Bishkek’s Birinchi May (Pervomaisky) District Court on July 10 convicted Pastor Shreider on charges of “incitement of racial, ethnic, national, religious, or regional enmity.” Judge Ubaydulla Satimkulov sentenced him to three years in a general regime labor camp and ordered his deportation to Russia at his own expense upon the end of the prison term, Forum 18 reported.
The pastor’s attorney, Akmat Alagushev, filed an appeal against his conviction and jail term to Bishkek City Court on Aug. 7.
The True and Free Reform Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kyrgyzstan chooses not to seek state registration. Exercising freedom of religion or belief without state registration is illegal and punishable in the country, Forum 18 notes.
Alamudin District Court in Chuy Region banned the True and Free Reform Adventist Church on March 19, labelling it an “extremist” religious organization. Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court in Bishkek then permanently rejected the church’s appeal against the ban on Aug. 4, with judges making the decision in only 20 minutes, according to Forum 18.
Because of the ban, the church can no longer meet for worship. It previously met in its place of worship in the village of Lenin, just north of Bishkek.
Kyrgyzstan officially adheres to the U.N. Convention against Torture, which requires signatory countries to arrest anyone suspected of committing or instigating torture “or take other legal measures to ensure his [sic] presence” and to try them under criminal law.
In a recent move that raises further alarm about the regime’s accountability, the Zhogorku Kenesh (Parliament) voted in June to abolish the free-standing National Center for the Prevention of Torture, handing its critical role to the Office of the regime-appointed Human Rights Ombudsperson.
