The EBF is shocked and dismayed to learn that another pastor, Pastor Hamid Shabanov, has been arrested in Aliabad, Azerbaijan by the police on what clearly seem to be false charges.

The EBF received this news from the General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Azerbaijan, Elnur Jabiyev, who writes: "We're in shock, because police claim to have found an illegal weapon in his home. It was a provocation by the police, a deliberately targeted action. The police's aim is to halt Baptist activity and close the church in Aliabad.”

The EBF is asking its Member Unions to contact the Azerbaijani Embassies in their countries, if possible, and to protest this latest violation of religious freedom. Pastor Zaur Balaev, who was set free from prison earlier in the year has also been suffering recent police harassment with threats to his family.

We call on all the member Unions and Conventions of the EBF to pray for this situation, that Pastor Hamid might be freed quickly, and also to pray that the Azerbaijani’s declared commitment to religious freedom might translate in to an ending of the harassment and persecution of Baptists and other minority churches in their country.

For more information on this case, please visit the Forum 18 website: