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

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Monday 10 December 2007
AZERBAIJAN: "IF YOU MEET AGAIN YOU’LL BE IMPRISONED," ADVENTISTS TOLD

Neighbourhood police officer Elhan Sokhbetov, who took part in an 8
December raid on a Baku Adventist congregation’s worship service, denied
that it was a raid. "It was just a check-up," he insisted to Forum 18 News
Service. Asked why 13 police officers had raided the service, why eight
church members had been held for five hours, insulted, threatened and fined
he responded: "No-one was threatened. It was just a check-up." Pastor Rasim
Bakhshiyev told Forum 18 he was warned they would be imprisoned if they
meet again for worship. "They tried to make us sign statements that we had
been led astray in coming to services and that we were renouncing our
faith," he added. "This was a crude violation of the law," another
Adventist leader told Forum 18. "All our documents are in order and they
have no reason to raid the congregation or to fine our members." No
official of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations was
available to tell Forum 18 why the service had been raided. Officials have
told the Adventists they are "too busy" to receive them.

AZERBAIJAN: "IF YOU MEET AGAIN YOU’LL BE IMPRISONED," ADVENTISTS TOLD

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <;

Police who raided a worship service of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in
the capital Baku on Saturday 8 December told the congregation’s leaders
that they will be imprisoned if they meet again, Pastor Rasim Bakhshiyev
told Forum 18 News Service from the city on 10 December. "They told us
verbally they will check up to make sure we don’t meet." He and seven other
congregation members were held for five hours at the local police station
and fined. However, reached by Forum 18 on 8 December shortly after the
group had been fined and released, the duty officer at the Nizami district
25th police department denied that any raid had taken place or that any
Adventists had been held.

Reached again on 10 December, the duty officer at the 25th police
department was also unable to explain why the Adventist congregation had
been raided. "Why?" he asked Forum 18, laughing, but failed to answer the
question. He referred all enquiries to the station head, but his telephone
went unanswered on 10 December.

But the neighbourhood police officer Elhan Sokhbetov, who took part in the
raid and in an earlier unsanctioned search of the premises where the
congregation meets, denied to Forum 18 that it was a raid. "It was just a
check-up" he told Forum 18 on 10 December. Asked why 13 police officers had
raided the church service, why eight church members had been held for five
hours, insulted, threatened and fined he responded: "No-one was threatened.
It was just a check-up." He then hung up.

Despite repeated calls on 10 December to the State Committee for Work with
Religious Organisations, none of the officially-authorised spokespersons
for the committee was available to tell Forum 18 why a religious
community’s worship service had been raided. The receptionist said that
committee chair Hidayat Orujev was in a meeting, while reached later she
said he had left the office. The telephone of deputy chair Elchin Askerov
went unanswered. Staff who answered the phones of spokespersons Yagut
Alieva and Jeyhun Mamedova said neither was there.

Adventist leaders in Baku told Forum 18 that they had telephoned the State
Committee on 10 December to try to arrange an urgent meeting to discuss the
raid, but officials told them they were "too busy" to receive them. "They
said perhaps they might be free on 25 December, so we should ring them on
24 December to find out," one Adventist told Forum 18 on 10 December. "They
just want to avoid talking with us about it." He declined to speculate
whether 25 December had been chosen specially, given that this is the day
Adventists in Azerbaijan celebrate Christmas.

"This was a crude violation of the law," the Adventist added. "All our
documents are in order and they have no reason to raid the congregation or
to fine our members."

Bakhshiyev told Forum 18 that at 11.30 am on 8 December, some 13 police
officers arrived as he was leading about 20 people in the congregation’s
worship service (the Adventists’ holy day is Saturday). He said the group –
half of whom were in uniform and half in civilian clothes – were from the
25th police department.

"They surrounded us and wrote down all our names," Bakhshiyev told Forum
18. "They insulted us, asking why we had no books about [the Muslim
prophet] Muhammad and why we preach Jesus without informing them. I calmly
told them that we preach Jesus Christ and that our faith commands us to be
peaceable in our preaching. They said we shouldn’t preach Jesus Christ."

Bakhshiyev said that he and seven members of the congregation were taken
to the local police station. "There were about 20 officers there. They
didn’t beat us, but they constantly insulted us in words." He said they
accused the church of meeting without state registration.

The Azeri-language Adventist congregation Bakhshiyev leads meets in a
privately-owned building in Baku’s Nizami district, but acts under the
umbrella of the city’s central Adventist Church, which has state
registration. Bakhshiyev said he explained this to the police but they
failed to accept this.

Bakhshiyev said the detained Adventists were taken to separate rooms,
where officers tried to force them to write statements. "They tried to make
us sign statements that we had been led astray in coming to services and
that we were renouncing our faith," he told Forum 18. "They accused me of
receiving money from Armenia, as though we support Armenia." (Azerbaijan
and Armenia have long been in conflict over the disputed region of
Nagorno-Karabakh.)

Bakhshiyev said that he was fined 16.50 Manats (106 Norwegian Kroner, 13
Euros or 20 US Dollars). The other seven Adventists were each fined 11
Manats. He said police did not explain exactly which article of the Code of
Administrative Offences they had violated. He said one of the detained
Adventists had been allowed out to collect together some money and they all
paid the fines. But were told receipts for the money would only be given
out on 10 December. All were freed after five hours’ detention.

During the summer the same congregation faced an unsanctioned raid led by
Sokhbetov, the neighbourhood police officer who took part in the 8 December
raid. "I suddenly saw him and about another seven police climbing through
the gates to get in," Bakhshiyev reported. "They searched the place right
through and then went away – all without any documents at all."

Bakhshiyev said his congregation wants to gain separate legal status, but
that the authorities "don’t want to register a second Adventist
congregation in Baku". He believes controls on religious communities have
become tighter since Orujev took over in July 2006 as chair of the State
Committee from the former chair Rafik Aliev.

Meanwhile, imprisoned Baptist pastor Zaur Balaev is still waiting to hear
when his appeal to the Supreme Court will be heard. Balaev led a Baptist
congregation in Aliabad in the far north-west of Azerbaijan, close to the
border with Georgia. Like most of the population of the village, he is from
the Georgian-speaking Ingilo minority. The congregation has repeatedly over
many years had its applications for legal status refused and has faced
years of harassment from the local authorities.

Arrested in May, Balaev is serving a two year sentence on charges of
resisting the police, charges eyewitnesses and church members insist are
"trumped-up". He is now being held in Ordinary Regime Prison Colony No. 10,
located in Darnagul in Baku’s Narimanov District (see F18News 16 November
2007 < 1049>).

"Zaur’s health is worsening in prison," Ilya Zenchenko, head of
Azerbaijan’s Baptist Union, told Forum 18 from Baku on 10 December. "Some
church members were able to visit him yesterday and he needs more
medicine." He said the Supreme Court has until 15 January to decide when
his second appeal against his sentence will be heard.

In early November, police in the southern port town of Neftechala on the
Caspian Sea, threatened local Baptist Jabbar Musaev with the same fate as
that of Balaev (see F18News 16 November 2007
< e_id=1049>).

"Jabbar was dragged out of his home directly in the eyes of his mother and
taken to the police station," Zenchenko complained. "Although he was freed
that evening he was so intimidated – and so was his mother."

Other Protestant congregations and Jehovah’s Witnesses have also faced
harassment in recent months. "Sometimes pressure is open, sometimes it is
covert," Zenchenko told Forum 18. (END)

For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the
international community can help establish religious freedom in Azerbaijan,
see < 482>

For more background information see Forum 18’s Azerbaijan religious
freedom survey at <‘ >

More coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Azerbaijan
is at
< mp;religion=all&country=23&results=50>

A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at
< id=806>.

A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba& gt;
(END)

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