Pastor suffers traumatic brain injury after torture in Kyrgyzstan prison

A pastor who has been tortured in a jail in Kyrgyzstan, based on U.N. special rapporteurs, has since suffered traumatic brain injuries which have left him cognitively impaired, based on Forum 18, a news site dedicated to reporting human rights and spiritual 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” leading to “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 within 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 through the Sept. 9 appeal hearing within the courtroom and in writing demanded that the prison authorities transfer him to the medical unit for treatment. They only transferred him greater 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 cops tortured each 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 criticism to the then-National Center for the Prevention of Torture, adding that officers “hit me with an iron pipe to force me to admit that I committed crimes.”

NSC secret cops also used a stun gun to attempt to coerce church member Igor Tsoi to put in writing an announcement 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 faith 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, in addition to the following criminal prosecution of Pastor Shreider.

“Serious allegations of torture and ill-treatment have been made with regard to Mr. Schreider and the opposite male members of the congregation during their detention,” the special rapporteurs stated to officials, Forum 18 reported.

“It is reported that the female and male 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 moreover subjected to strangulation with cellophane bags and the usage 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 4 Church members.

The regime responded with a temporary reply in Russian on Sept. 20, based on the U.N. Special Procedures communication website.

National Agency for Religious Affairs and Interethnic Relations Deputy Director Kanatbek Midin Uuly didn’t answer calls from Forum 18 and didn’t reply to written questions on the regime’s moves against the True and Free Reform Adventists.

Pastor Shreider’s family pointed to several aspects which have caused his poor health, telling Forum 18 that the beating during his arrest was essentially the most critical: “Firstly, he’s of an older age. The prison regime isn’t conducive for his body movement or exercise and his blood circulation is bad. … Secondly, he probably has stress day-after-day due to his arrest. … And lastly, and possibly most significantly, cops 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 that tortured Pastor Shreider and the church members, Forum 18 reported. The then-National Center for the Prevention of Torture claimed that the torture “can’t 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 jail 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 3 years in a general regime labor camp and ordered his deportation to Russia at his own expense upon the tip 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 hunt state registration. Exercising freedom of faith or belief without state registration is illegitimate and punishable within 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 choice in just 20 minutes, based on Forum 18.

Because of the ban, the church can now not meet for worship. It previously met as a substitute of worship within 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 make sure his [sic] presence” and to try them under criminal law.

In a recent move that raises further alarm concerning 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.

© Christian Daily International