The Uzbek Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a Tashkent Baptist, Tohar Haydarov (28), who is serving a ten-year sentence in labour camp.

Pastor Dmitry Shestakov was released from prison on 21 January 2011, at the end of a four-year sentence for "religious activities".

Nadezhda Matyukhina, an 85-year-old disabled woman, has been convicted of "teaching religion without permission". Following conviction at Tashkent's Criminal Court last month, the judge gave her an official warning.

Lawyers for Tohar Haydarov, a 27-year-old Baptist from Tashkent, are preparing an appeal to the Uzbek Supreme Court against a ten year jail sentence imposed on him on drugs charges earlier this year.

Three members of a large church in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, were yesterday sentenced to 15 days in prison.

Gafur Yusupov, who lives in a home for people with disabilities in Fergana in eastern Uzbekistan, has been banned from attending his Baptist Church.

Dmitry Shestakov, a 37 year-old Pentecostal pastor, has been sentenced to four years "re-education" beacause of his religious activity. The sentence is to be served in an open work camp, as the court ruled that Dmitry had to be deprived of his freedom "given the absence of the possibility of re-educating him without isolation from society"