FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
========================================== ======
Wednesday 22 March 2006
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: WILL IMPRISONED BAPTIST FACE NEW SENTENCE?
Fellow Baptists fear that Gagik Mirzoyan could face new charges when his
current sentence for refusing to perform military duties expires on 5
September. “All kinds of officials have told us he will be sentenced again
– and that next time the sentence will be harsher,” Baptist pastor Garnik
Abreyan told Forum 18 News Service from Stepanakert, capital of the
unrecognised republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus. A
Karabakh native, Mirzoyan was imprisoned after refusing on grounds of
religious faith to swear the military oath and handle weapons when
conscripted into the army in 2004. Despite being beaten in prison in
February and sent to the punishment cells, Mirzoyan told visiting civil
society activist Albert Voskanyan that he has “no complaints” about his
current treatment. Jehovah’s Witness Areg Hovhanesyan is serving a
four-year sentence in the same prison for refusing Karabakh’s compulsory
military service.
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: WILL IMPRISONED BAPTIST FACE NEW SENTENCE?
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <;
Fellow church members of imprisoned Baptist Gagik Mirzoyan have told Forum
18 News Service that they believe recent difficulties he has experienced in
prison in the unrecognised republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South
Caucasus have now been resolved. But they fear he could be imprisoned
again for refusing to swear the military oath and handle weapons on
religious grounds once his current term of imprisonment expires on 5
September. “All kinds of officials have told us he will be sentenced again
– and that next time the sentence will be harsher,” Baptist pastor Garnik
Abreyan told Forum 18 from Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert on 20 March.
“We’re not lawyers, but we know that it is wrong to sentence people more
than once for the same offence.”
Abreyan insisted that Mirzoyan is prepared to serve in the military if he
can do so in accordance with his Christian faith without swearing the oath
and without handling weapons, but would prefer to do alternative service,
an option not currently offered in Karabakh, where two-year military
service is compulsory for all young men. “We’re prepared to serve in
hospitals even on the frontline,” Abreyan told Forum 18. “We want to show
everyone here it’s not because we’re afraid.”
Jehovah’s Witness young men – who face the same problems when called up –
have also called for the Karabakh authorities to introduce an alternative
service, for example in hospitals. One local civil society activist who
has initiated a debate on this is Albert Voskanyan, director of the Centre
for Civilian Initiatives in Stepanakert.
Lieutenant-General Seyran Ohanyan, Defence Minister of the unrecognised
republic, insisted to Forum 18 in February 2005 that those who cannot
serve in the armed forces on grounds of conscience have to be dealt with
under the law, pointing to the unresolved armed conflict with Azerbaijan
(see F18News 22 February 2005
< e_id=517>).
Mirzoyan was beaten in prison in the town of Shushi, near Stepanakert, in
February, and then on 25 February was sentenced to ten days in the prison
punishment cells for refusing to perform tasks he was assigned. It remains
unclear what duties he refused to perform and why. However, the prison
director, Artur Abramyan, told Voskanyan at the prison on 20 March that
Mirzoyan had in the end served only four days in the punishment cells.
Voskanyan told Forum 18 on 20 March that during his visit to the prison
earlier in the day he had been able to meet Mirzoyan who, he said, is now
working in the prison canteen and has “no complaints” about his current
treatment. The previous week, Mirzoyan was able to meet his mother and
sister, who noted that his face, legs and hands were swollen and bruised
and that even walking caused him pain. Voskanyan stressed to Forum 18 that
the prison authorities had previously praised Mirzoyan and imprisoned
Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector Areg Hovhanesyan for their
“exemplary behaviour”.
No official was prepared to discuss Mirzoyan’s case with Forum 18 on 20
March. Officials at the police in Stepanakert – who still have authority
over prisons despite moves to transfer them to the authority of the
Justice Ministry – referred all enquiries to the Prosecutor’s Office. The
Stepanakert and the Karabakh prosecutor’s offices both said they were not
involved in his case. No one at Shushi prison was prepared to talk to
Forum 18.
Abreyan stressed that the Baptists want to resolve Mirzoyan’s case
amicably. “Our sole aim is to ensure that our brother is not beaten, we’re
not trying to cause trouble and make life difficult for the prison
leadership,” he told Forum 18.
Mirzoyan, who is from Mardakert in northern Karabakh and is a member of a
local congregation of the Council of Churches Baptists (who refuse on
principle to register with the state authorities in post-Soviet
countries), was called up in December 2004. He announced immediately that
he was not able to serve with weapons or swear the military oath on
grounds of religious conscience. In the wake of his conscription he was
beaten up in two different military units and served 10 days in military
prison. Although he was then allowed to serve without weapons or swearing
the oath, he was later prosecuted.
At the district court of Hadrut in south-eastern Karabakh in July 2005,
Mirzoyan was found guilty under Article 364 part 1 of the Criminal Code
(Nagorno-Karabakh has adopted Armenia’s Criminal Code), which punishes
“refusal to perform one’s military duties” with detention of up to 3
months, service in a punishment battalion of up to 2 years or imprisonment
of up to 2 years. Mirzoyan was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, but
this was suspended and he was then sent back to his military unit.
However, in September Hadrut district court converted this into a one-year
term of imprisonment at the urging of military leaders (see F18News 5
September 2005 < 642>).
Hovhanesyan, the Jehovah’s Witness from Stepanakert also held in Shushi
prison, was sentenced in February 2005 to four years’ imprisonment for
refusing military service on grounds of religious conscience (see F18News
22 February 2005 < 517>).
Also sentenced in Karabakh in 2005 for refusing military service on
religious grounds was another Jehovah’s Witness Armen Grigoryan, an
Armenian citizen who had been illegally deported from Armenia to serve in
Karabakh against his will. Grigoryan was returned to Armenia to serve his
two year sentence (see F18News 7 July 2005
< e_id=600>). He has now been
freed.
Controversy continues over Armenia’s failure to honour its promise to the
Council of Europe to free imprisoned conscientious objectors (see F18News
22 February 2006 < 732>) and
to introduce genuinely civilian alternative service (see F18News 23
February 2006 < 733>). (END)
A printer-friendly map of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is
available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba& gt;
within the map titled ‘Azerbaijan’.
A printer-friendly map of Armenia is available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=armeni& gt;
(END)
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
