12 church members start hunger strike in Kazakhstan

MOSCOW, Sept 7 (Reuters) Twelve members of a Presbyterian church in Kazakhstan started a hunger strike today to protest against accusations of treason against three of its staff, Interfax news agency reported.

Kazakhstan is a predominately Muslim country but has a handful of Protestant churches, many of which cater to Kazakhstan's ethnic Korean minority and have links to churches in South Korea.

Interfax quoted the senior pastor at the church in Karaganda in central Kazakhstan, Vyacheslav Vorobyev, as saying members of the Kazakh internal security service raided the church and properties of some of its workers on August 24.

The church's archbishop, his sister and an administrator are suspected by the Kazakh authorities of treason, Interfax quoted Vorobyev as saying.

REUTERS PDT VC2132