Uzbekistan: Christian missionary deported

A U.S. citizen has been deported from Uzbekistan for conducting unauthorized missionary work, a source in the republic's police department said on Friday.

The police official did not specify when the U.S. citizen was deported.

The source said he worked as a consultant to an antiques dealer in Tashkent and studied Uzbek at the state university.

"Having learnt good conversational Uzbek, he made friends with some of the local students and organized his own courses at his home under the pretense of a study group," the source said, adding that the U.S. citizen was spreading Evangelical Christian - Baptist ideas.

He was ordered to pay a fine then deported from Uzbekistan.