Faced with a conviction of “inciting hostility” on Thursday (May 29), there is a church pastor who was hit by an iron pipe, kicked, and hit to the head and chest, in the face of a conviction of “hospitalizing hostility,” according to Rights Group Forum 18.
The torture failed in an attempt to elicit a false confession from Pastor Pavel Schreider, a 65-year-old pastor of the Adventist Church, reported by Forum 18, who remains in jail in pre-trial detention at the Home Affairs Department prison in the capital city of Bishkek’s capital.
He was there after National Security Agency (NSC) police handcuffed him when he left his home near Bishkek at 8am on November 13th.
“I gave a blow to my head, my chest and I was kicked from behind by five officers in the spine,” Pastor Schreider wrote a complaint with the National Center for Preventing Torture to Prevent Torture. The officer said, “I hit me with an iron pipe to make him confess that I had committed a crime.”
Secret police then forced Medic to evaluate, “I signed a paper that I had not been unhappy with them,” Pastor Schrader said.
Secret Police also used a stun gun that tried to accidentally get the pastor to get him to get him to get him to get him. Igor Tse refused to do so despite suffering from “multiple injuries” and was released later that day, Forum 18 reported.
The pastor faces a sentence of six to seven years if the Bishkek court convicts him on Thursday (May 29) at a scheduled hearing of “inciting racial, ethnic, national, religious or local hostility committed by a group of individuals.” He denies the charge. The trial began on April 17th.
“There is no single reference to the indictment against a conspirator who is allegedly committed the crime Schreider mentioned. There is no reference to a particular name,” the pastor’s lawyer, Akmat Alagushev, told Forum 18.
The pastor’s daughter, Vera Schreider, visited him in prison on Tuesday (May 20), and said he was “going physically well,” and that the family was allowed to bring him food and medicine.
“He was recently medically tested by various doctors after multiple calls to various authorities,” she said. “Prison food is normal. He can read the Bible. He keeps it in his cell and is allowed to pray.”
Forum 18 found nine officers involved in the arrest of Pastor Schreider at his home. The rights group has identified some of them as Siymik Bolotov, an investigator for the NSC Secret Police. Azim Kurmanbekov, senior opera for the Ministry of Home Affairs. Similarly, there are two officers from the special police separation, masked and armed with automatic rifles.
They “ranced the bell on our door and when we opened they came in handcuffs from my father,” Bella Schrider said, adding that police had searched the family’s home. “They pushed my father’s head down as if he were a dangerous criminal. My father didn’t allow us to talk. ‘It’s a secret case’, they told us and prevented us from calling our lawyer by stealing all the phones.
Pastor Schreider was handcuffed to a building used by the church for worship in Lenin village, in the Alamdun district of the Chui region, just north of Bishkek. They searched the house. The house is owned by a relative of Pastor Pavel Yanten.
Authorities searched the homes of nine other church members on the same day. They confiscated more than 2,000 books, including Ellen White, the founder of the Adventist Faith, and at least 50 Bibles. Computers and other technical equipment, cash, cell phones, and documents owned by five homes and two cars were also seized.
They later sent the items back to the owner, except for the cell phone that Secret Police claimed it was lost and held the book for evidence of the case against the pastor.
According to Forum 18, the Adventist Church on the 7th day of True Reform in Kyrgyzstan is part of the Adventist reform movement that emerged during the Soviet era.
The Reform Movement Church is distinguished from the seventh-day Adventist Church based in the US.
The True Freedom Reform Church is not registered with Kyrgyzstan authorities and makes it illegal in the country.
The unnamed church member told Forum 18 that authorities have “since 2022 we have closed our churches and have asked for excuses.” Church members did not reveal their names out of fear of national retribution.
Church members mentioned the “manufactured” incident against Pastor Schreider. In 2021, an incident was filed against two church members who allegedly “under the direction of Pastor Schreider, they manipulated another member of the church, an old lady, to sell the house she owns.”
Church members said the authorities added these false witness statements as a kind of evidence, along with books confiscated from the pastor. They say the authorities are trying to link a criminal case against Pastor Schreider with the 2021 case, Forum 18 reported.
The Watchdog contacted several authorities about the arrest and torture, but they all refused to answer any questions.
Kyrgyzstan is the signatories of the United Nations treaties against torture and other cruel, inhumane or degraded treatment and punishment.
