KAZAKHSTAN: 192 known administrative prosecutions in 2023

More than a third of the 192 known administrative prosecutions in 2023 for exercising freedom of religion or belief punished individuals for religious posts on social media without state permission. A quarter were punished for offering religious literature for sale – in shops or online – without state permission. One individual and one charity were prosecuted for having religious books, although this is not an offence. The Information and Social Development Ministry (of which the Religious Affairs Committee is a part) claimed wrongly that there were only 139 such cases in 2023.