A Christian pastor in Kyrgyzstan now suffers irreversible brain damage after being beaten and imprisoned by secret police under bogus charges, as The Christian Post reports.

Pastor Pavel Shreider, age 65, was convicted of incitement, tortured in detention, and denied timely medical care, leading to severe neurological damage and international condemnation of Kyrgyzstan’s human rights practices.

Before the abuse and imprisonment, Shreider led the True and Free Reform Adventist Church and was one of several church members persecuted under the guise of national security violations. He and three others were arrested back in November 2024 by Kyrgyzstan’s secret police, the National Security Committee (NSC), an outfit that seems to emulate more of the KGB than any legitimate law enforcement.

In a written complaint filed after his arrest, Shreider described being struck repeatedly on the chest and head, kicked in the spine, and beaten with an iron pipe until he gave a coerced confession. Apparently, in Kyrgyz courts, justice comes not through due process, but through blunt force trauma.

Pastor Complained Of Beatings And Forced Confession

“Five officers gave me blows on my head, chest, and gave me kicks in my spine from behind,” Shreider documented. He described beatings so vicious they mirror tactics outlawed by every international human rights body, which Kyrgyzstan claims to adhere to.

Others weren't spared either. Church member Igor Tsoi suffered a stun gun attack when he rightly refused to deliver a false statement against Shreider. If this is what qualifies as law enforcement in Kyrgyzstan, they’ve traded their badges for bludgeons.

Despite numerous reports of torture, no NSC officer has been held to account. The country’s own National Center for the Prevention of Torture—naturally, a government-funded agency—dismissed the claims, saying they “cannot be corroborated.” That’s bureaucrat-speak for, “We’d rather not look.”

Medical Neglect Worsened the Pastor’s Condition

The injuries Shreider endured were not just brutal but also enduring. According to Forum 18, a news organization that tracks religious freedom, the pastor developed encephalopathy, which is a form of brain damage. He was finally moved to a medical prison unit on September 25, 2025—over two weeks after his condition was obvious to anyone with eyes.

His daughter, Vera Shreider, said the family had to pressure authorities to move him. “As also seen from the official medical examination paper, he has developed encephalopathy… They only transferred him more than two weeks later,” she noted. Apparently, urgency is optional when a regime doesn’t value your life.

At his appeal hearing earlier that same month, Shreider appeared visibly weakened. The courtroom became less a place for justice and more a reminder of state-inflicted cruelty. His daughter had already requested his transfer on September 12, but like most official requests in authoritarian systems, it fell on deaf ears until the damage was done.

United Nations Condemns Torture And Targeted Prosecution

International scrutiny has intensified. In July, five U.N. Special Rapporteurs raised the alarm about Pastor Shreider’s treatment and questioned the Kyrgyz government on both the torture and the criminal prosecution of church members.

The rapporteurs cited multiple witness accounts stating that NSC officers beat seven male detainees in front of others. Reports also noted cellophane bag suffocation and taser abuse used specifically on Shreider and Tsoi. This is the kind of conduct you expect from rogue juntas, not from countries trying to play nice on the international stage.

Kyrgyz authorities responded with a conveniently shallow two-paragraph statement in Russian—designed more to check the box than to address real human rights concerns. Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of the country's religious affairs agency ignored all media queries. Silence speaks louder than cover stories.

Persecution Follows A Pattern Of Criminalization

Shreider’s ordeal is just one branch of a broader strategy by Kyrgyz authorities to crack down on religion outside state control. The True and Free Reform Adventist Church was banned in March 2025, smeared in court as “extremist,” all for declining state registration, which Kyrgyzstan requires by law, even though it flies in the face of basic religious freedom.

A quick appeal to the Supreme Court in August? Denied in 20 minutes. That’s barely enough time to pretend to read the file, let alone deliberate fairly. Still think this sounds like a democracy?

The pastor’s age and condition didn’t help. His family cited limited movement, high stress, and brutal beatings as the accelerants to his deterioration. And of course, the underlying point—he was 65 when this all began. This wasn’t just an assault on faith; it was an attack on the vulnerable.

Kyrgyzstan Faces Legal Obligations It Ignores

Ironically, Kyrgyzstan is a signatory to the U.N. Convention against Torture. That small detail should require the country to prosecute acts like those committed against Shreider. Instead, Parliament made it worse by dismantling its independent torture prevention agency this past June, turning watchdog duties over to a regime-controlled ombudsperson.