A young Protestant in Kyrgyzstan has been left with a fractured jaw after being attacked by three men, Forum 18 reports.

Eldos Sattar uuly, 25, was attacked in his uncle’s house in the village of Tamchi, in the north-eastern Issyk-Kul region. A villager told Forum 18 that Sattar uuly had been threatened before by a group of young men, with warnings to “renounce his Christian faith and convert to Islam”.

According to the villager, the three attackers hit and kicked him to the floor on the night of 16 October.

“They shouted at him that he is a kafir [“infidel” in Arabic], and that he had betrayed Islam. Then they kicked his head while on the floor, breaking several of his front teeth and his jaw-bone,” the villager said. Before leaving, they reportedly told him that they’d return to kill him if he did not leave the village by the morning.

Sattar uuly was able to call for aid only in the morning. He was taken to the National Hospital in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, where his jaw, gums and teeth were operated on. “He will not be able to speak or move his jaw or teeth as his gums were sown together. He will be in this condition for at least a month and a half,” the villager told Forum 18.

According to Forum 18, one of the attackers visited Sattar uuly in the hospital and offered compensation for medical expenses if he withdrew his complaint to the authorities. When the family refused to accept it, the attacker reportedly said: “Think about your future in the village. You will have to live with us in the same village.” The two other attackers also visited him with the same demand and threatened to kill him, Forum 18 said.

The three attackers were charged with hooliganism and the Issyk Kul regional police announced on social media that the attack did not have a religious motive but occurred because Sattar uuly “listened to loud music”, according to the statements of the attackers. The three men were put under house arrest, however police did not enforce it, Forum 18 said.

Sattar uuly’s lawyer, Zhanar Askar kyzy, told Forum 18 that the charge was “inadequate for the seriousness of the three attackers’ crimes”. She said there should also be charges for breaking into the house, inciting religious hatred and deliberately inflicting the serious injuries he sustained.

“The case is at a standstill,” the lawyer told Forum 18 on 8 November. “The law-enforcement agencies are not investigating the case anymore. Eldos is in hospital, and the attackers are in freedom.”

She has filed a complaint to the District Prosecutor and asked the National Security Committee secret police to open a case for inciting religious hatred – the only agency able to bring such a charge.