Amid allegations by U.N. special Rapporteurs of prison personnel torturing a church leader in Kyrgyzstan, the pastor has traumatic brain injuries that have left him cognitively impaired, according to rights group Forum 18.

Prison chief Major Azat Kudaybergenov informed relatives of the Rev. Pavel Shreider, 65, a True and Free Reform Adventist pastor, in a Sept. 22 letter that doctors had examined him multiple times and diagnosed “traumatic brain injury” resulting in “cognitive impairment,” Forum 18 reported.

Serving a three-year prison sentence on fabricated charges of “inciting enmity,” Pastor Shreider has been transferred to Prison No. 31, a medical unit in the capital city of Bishkek, according to Forum 18. Vera Shreider, his daughter, had appealed to Prison No. 21 officials on Sept. 12, pleading for medical care.

“As also seen from the official medical examination paper, he has developed encephalopathy, which is brain damage, and which has affected his general health,” the family stated, Forum 18 reported. “We already saw him very weak during the Sept. 9 appeal hearing in the courtroom and in writing demanded the prison authorities to transfer him to the medical unit for treatment. They only transferred him more than two weeks later.”

The National Security Committee (NSC) secret police in November 2024 launched a raid on the pastor’s home in Bishkek and the homes of 10 church members before the arrests. Forum 18 reported that NSC secret police officers tortured both Pastor Shreider and three other church members during their post-arrest interrogations. Police officers denied the abuse.

“Five officers gave me blows on my head, chest and gave me kicks in my spine from behind,” Shreider wrote in a November 2024 complaint to the then-National Center for the Prevention of Torture, adding that officers “hit me with an iron pipe to force me to confess that I committed crimes.”

NSC secret police officers also used a stun gun to try to coerce church member Igor Tsoy to write a statement against Pastor Shreider, Forum 18 stated. The stun gun caused Tsoy multiple injuries, but he refused their demand.

Five U.N. Special Rapporteurs, including Nazila Ghanea, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, on July 23 wrote to the regime citing “arrests, detentions and alleged torture” of members of the True and Free Reform Adventist Church, as well as the subsequent criminal prosecution of Pastor Shreider.

“Serious allegations of torture and ill-treatment have been made with regard to Mr. Schreider and the other male members of the congregation during their detention,” the Special Rapporteurs stated to officials, Forum 18 reported. “It is reported that the male and female members of the group witnessed [NSC secret police] officers striking the heads and bodies of the seven male members of the group, including Mr. Schreider, Mr. [Yuri] Pauls, Mr. Igor Tsoi, Mr. Peter Petkau, all of whom reported ill-treatment in detention. It is reported that Mr. Schreider and Mr. Tsoi were additionally subjected to strangulation with cellophane bags and the use of tasers.”

The Special Rapporteurs asked the regime for comments on their actions against the True and Free Adventists and about Pastor Shreider’s health. They also asked how his prosecution and the court-imposed ban on the church were “compatible with the international human rights obligations,” and what measures had been taken to “investigate the credible accusations” of torture against the four Church members.