UZBEKISTAN: "I was only obeying orders"

Uzbekistan continues to punish unregistered religious activity, as well as imposing controls on notionally permitted Muslim religious activity, Forum 18 News Service has learned. Courts have fined one Baptist and warned a second Baptist, who was a Soviet-era prisoner of conscience, for religious activity. The judge in the case refused to talk about it to Forum 18, but the police officer who led the raid that led to the prosecution told Forum 18 that "I was only obeying orders" from his superiors. Long-term Baptist prisoner of conscience Tohar Haydarov has had an appeal registered at the Supreme Court, but officials will not say when – or if - a hearing will take place. Uzbekistan has also imposed greater restrictions on Muslim religious activity during the month of Ramadan (which this year ended on 9 September) by banning iftar meals in restaurants, greater surveillance of mosques, banning night prayers away from mosques, and cutting water and electricity at prayer times in different places across the country.

10 September 2010

TURKMENISTAN: Appeal for imprisoned pastor

The wife of imprisoned Protestant pastor Ilmurad Nurliev, Maya Nurlieva, has expressed concern to Forum 18 News Service over his state of health in a smoky, overcrowded investigation cell, especially as he has no access to medical treatment for his diabetes. The 45-year-old grandfather has been accused of extracting money from three people, charges his wife and church members vigorously reject. She says police pressured the accusers. "All this is being done because of his faith." Local prosecutor Razmurad Durdiev defends the investigation. "No-one is being pressured to write statements," he claimed to Forum 18. Nurlieva called on international observers – including from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe – to attend any trial, a request she put in person to the OSCE Centre in Ashgabad. The OSCE Centre told Forum 18 it is "closely following the developments regarding the case of Pastor Nurliev". Meanwhile, Turkmenistan's government has not yet revealed if it will allow any Muslims to undertake the haj pilgrimage to Mecca this year.

8 September 2010

KAZAKHSTAN: Proposed new Administrative Code to be reworked, existing penalties remain

In withdrawing from Parliament the controversial proposed new Code of Administrative Offences, the government was not responding to pressure from human rights defenders, an official and a law professor have separately told Forum 18 News Service. Bulat Beisov of the Justice Ministry's Legislation Department insisted the Code will be reworked and presented again to Parliament. Law professor Roman Podoprigora says the impact on human rights and religious freedom of the withdrawal of the proposed new Code is "neutral". He points out that the Code in force today already includes two Articles punishing non state-approved religious activity which are likely simply to be carried over into the new Code when it is presented once again. Beisov rejected any suggestion that the two Articles in both the current and withdrawn new Code violate international human rights norms by punishing people for unregistered religious activity.

3 September 2010

TAJIKISTAN: Officials choose Ramadan to impose controls

On the first full day of Ramadan, the Chair and other officials of the Tajikistan government's Religious Affairs Committee, as well as the Justice Ministry and the National Security Committee secret police, visited the Dushanbe headquarters of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) to order it to halt using its offices for prayers. "We do not officially call it a mosque but do pray in it. However, the officials take a different view on this," Hikmatullo Saifullozoda of the IRP told Forum 18 News Service. Officials agreed to allow prayers there but only for the rest of Ramadan. Presidential Senior Advisor Mansur Sayfutdinov told Forum 18 that according to the law, no political organisation may establish a mosque. Authorities in a town in Sugd Region chose the start of Ramadan to ban the use of loudspeakers to broadcast Muslim prayers. The Religious Affairs Committee has reaffirmed the 2009 ban on children taking part in the haj pilgrimage to Mecca. And the investigator has refused to tell Forum 18 whether the criminal case against 17 Jehovah's Witnesses will be sent to court.

2 September 2010

TAJIKISTAN: "Your children will become extremists and terrorists"

A new crackdown is underway on religious education of children and young people in Tajikistan and abroad, Forum 18 News Service notes. In televised remarks, President Emomali Rahmon called on parents to recall their children from foreign Islamic colleges, claiming that otherwise "your children will become extremists and terrorists". "We ourselves, the government and the Religious Affairs Committee, will decide how many religious ministers are needed for the country," he insisted. Presidential Advisor Mansur Sayfutdinov claimed to Forum 18 that the president was speaking not of all such students, but only those who had not sought state permission for such studies. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry launched an apparently nationwide "Operation Madrassah" to end private teaching of Islam, which has seen many madrassahs raided and administrative cases launched against teachers. "We have only identified and stopped illegally acting mullahs who have no licence to teach the Koran," one police officer told Forum 18. Article 474 of the Administrative Code bans "teaching religious knowledge without [state] permission".

30 August 2010

TURKMENISTAN: Five years' imprisonment for arrested Protestant pastor?

Pentecostal pastor Ilmurad Nurliev, arrested at his home in Mary in south-eastern Turkmenistan on 27 August, faces criminal charges of large-scale swindling which carry a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment and confiscation of property, his wife Maya and his lawyer have told Forum 18 News Service. Two women who had attended church meetings wrote statements that he took money from them, as did a man they had never heard of, charges his wife and other church members deny vigorously. They say police pressured the two women to write the statements and they now regret doing so. Another church member has been threatened that if she does not testify against Pastor Nurliev her husband – who is not a church member – will be sacked from his job. Forum 18 was unable to discuss the case with officials, including police investigator Durdimurad Gazakov. Meanwhile, mystery surrounds why two imams were arrested and given long prison terms.

18 August 2010

UZBEKISTAN: "The Court decided so"

Uzbekistan continues punishing peaceful religious activity and imprisoning prisoners of conscience, Forum 18 News Service has learned. Three Muslims have been given five years in prison, with one Protestant being given 10 days in jail. Six Muslims have been fined 70 times the minimum monthly salary, and one Protestant has been fined almost 10 times the minimum monthly salary. Defending his decision to punish the nine Muslims, Judge Bakhtiyor Rustamov told Forum 18 that the defendants read the works of Said Nursi, which are banned in Uzbekistan. When asked why long prison terms were imposed, Rustamov stated that "I cannot tell you over the phone, it's a long case". Judge Bahadyr Shahanov would not say why he punished the Protestants, but said it was an administrative penalty. "The Court decided so," he said. When asked why the jailed Protestant, Rustam Kalbayev, was not given a copy of the verdict, Judge Shahanov claimed that "he has signed a paper that he received it." Kalbayev denies this claim, and his fellow-believers point out that the conduct of the trial breached Uzbek legal procedures.

5 August 2010

UZBEKISTAN: "We are bandits"

Uzbekistan continues short-term jailings of prisoners of conscience and large fines against Christians meeting together, Forum 18 News Service has learned. 10 Protestant short-term prisoners of conscience have been jailed for between three and five days, and three were fined 80 times the minimum monthly wage. The raid which preceded the punishments – in which 23 people including small children were detained – was carried out with great brutality. Police under Major Ilyos Mustafayev broke into the house, confiscating two personal Bibles, four songbooks and one textbook of violin lessons. They then began "pushing the believers forcefully" into cars outside, Baptists complained. "Some believers were kicked and hit while they were dragged out of the house." Major Mustafayev, when asked by the Baptists why the Police acted like bandits, replied: "Yes, we are bandits". Questioned by Forum 18, Mustafayev denied his identity. Elsewhere a court has ordered that officially permitted Christian books and leaflets found in a raid should be confiscated and destroyed, despite Uzbek legal procedure being violated.

3 August 2010

TURKMENISTAN: "The Constitution is only a scrap of paper for the Turkmen authorities"

Turkmenistan has raided a Christian young people's summer camp organised by two legally registered churches, Protestants who asked not to be identified for fear of state reprisals told Forum 18 News Service. Participants – particularly ethnic Turkmens - were arrested, insulted, threatened and had personal Bibles confiscated. When camp leaders pointed out their rights to meet under Turkmenistan's Constitution, officers insulted the Constitution. "To put it mildly, the Constitution is only a scrap of paper for the Turkmen authorities," one Protestant complained to Forum 18, "while the Church's legal status means even less." Elsewhere, others have been pressured to sign statements that they will not meet for worship, and two Protestants were fired from their jobs because of their faith. Registration – and hence the right to carry out activities legally - remains impossible for many religious communities, and re-registration is being used as a weapon to stop religious activity. However, the Justice Ministry has after 13 years registered the Catholic congregation in the capital Ashgabad. But strict censorship and border controls are still being imposed on all religious literature and religious believers.

14 July 2010

UZBEKISTAN: Two further short-term jailings, while raids and fines continue

The ten-day prison terms handed down to Lepes Omarov and another Protestant in Karakalpakstan on 8 July brought to ten the number of people known to Forum 18 News Service to have been given short-term prison terms in 2010 to punish them for their religious activity. All religious activity in Karakalpakstan outside state-approved mosques and one Russian Orthodox church is banned. Elsewhere in Uzbekistan, a Protestant in Tashkent Region was given a written warning that "as the leader of an illegally functioning cell of Protestant tendency" he was breaking the law by holding religious services and sharing his faith and risks prosecution. An "Anti-Terror" operation in Fergana targeted two Baptists offering Christian books – they were fined, while the verdict records that the court "considers it necessary" that the four books confiscated from them be destroyed. No official would discuss these cases with Forum 18.

8 July 2010

UZBEKISTAN: More Muslims jailed, what chance of appeals by Muslim and Christian prisoners of conscience?

In a mass trial, Bukhara Regional Court handed down sentences on 25 June of between eight and six years on a group of nine men, sources who asked not to be identified told Forum 18 News Service. The nine were readers of the works of Muslim theologian Said Nursi or acquaintances of them. A trial in the same court of a further ten men – arrested at the same time in early 2010 – began on 22 June and is still continuing. Court officials refused to discuss the cases with Forum 18. Meanwhile, 27-year-old Tohar Haydarov – sentenced to ten years' imprisonment on drugs charges which his fellow-Baptists insist were fabricated – is planning to appeal to Uzbekistan's Supreme Court. "He is hoping that justice will happen and he will be released," fellow Baptists told Forum 18. They said his health in labour camp near Karshi is "normal". Jailed Muslim journalist Hairulla Hamidov told his mother during a meeting in a Tashkent prison in June there was no hope for an appeal to be successful and that he had therefore decided against it.

24 June 2010

KAZAKHSTAN: Parliament to go against international human rights commitments?

Following a police raid on his ordination service, Baptist pastor Oleg Voropaev in Kazakhstan's northern Pavlodar Region has become the latest victim of the Administrative Code's punishments for leading unregistered worship, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Voropaev told the court that he considered himself not guilty, as Kazakhstan's Constitution guarantees the right to worship individually or collectively. As a community without a bank account the church does not need legal status, and does not need or want registration to exist or meet. Human rights defenders and religious communities are concerned that punishments for religious activity under the current Administrative Code are retained under the proposed new Code now in Parliament. Deputy Serik Temirbulatov, who chairs the Majilis working group preparing the new draft, expects a draft to be presented to the Majilis' Legislative and Judicial-Legal Committee in late October, and a draft to reach the full Majilis in December. Asked if the majority view among deputies will prevail even if proposed Articles still violate Kazakhstan's international human rights commitments, Temirbulatov responded: "Yes."