Azerbaijan Persecutions Continue.

AZERBAIJAN - Baptist leaders fined for worshipping

The leaders of two small Baptist churches in Azerbaijan have been given heavy fines for holding worship services – and threatened with even tougher penalties unless they stop.
At a hearing on Good Friday, judges fined pastors Zaur Balayev and Hamid Shabanov 1,500 AZN (£1,270) each, according to Release contacts. The average wage in Azerbaijan is £200 a month.
The two pastors, who minister in the north-west of the country, have suffered persecution for more than 15 years, according to Archbishop Malkhaz Songulashvili of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia, writing in a letter to Release partners.