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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Wednesday 28 January 2009
AZERBAIJAN: UNREGISTERED WORSHIP "ILLEGAL" – BUT UNDER WHAT LAW?

Police in Azerbiajan have raided another Jehovah’s Witness meeting, Forum
18 News Service has learnt. In the latest raid, nine Jehovah’s Witnesses
were detained and threatened. "We consider the police raid unlawful since
the Constitution of Azerbaijan gives us the right to gather for worship and
Azerbaijani law does not require registration to come together to study the
Holy Scriptures," a Jehovah’s Witness told Forum 18. The community will
continue to meet, he insisted. Officials repeatedly insist that
unregistered worship is banned by the Civil Code. Article 299 of this Code
lists three "offences": avoiding state registration, violating regulations
over organising religious events and attracting children to religious
events. Violations can be punished with fines of between 10 and 15 times
the minimum monthly wage. However, state registration is not legally
required for religious activity to be conducted. Meanwhile Baptist Pastor
Hamid Shabanov’s trial is once again due to resume, after repeated delays,
on 4 February.

AZERBAIJAN: UNREGISTERED WORSHIP "ILLEGAL" – BUT UNDER WHAT LAW?

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <;

Police raided a Jehovah’s Witness meeting in the village of Sevinj not far
from Azerbaijan’s second city Gyanja [Ganca] on 18 January, Jehovah’s
Witnesses told Forum 18 News Service. Nine Jehovah’s Witnesses were taken
to the police station where they were threatened with administrative
penalties, but all were freed later that day. "We consider the police raid
unlawful since the Constitution of Azerbaijan gives us the right to gather
for worship and Azerbaijani law does not require registration to come
together to study the Holy Scriptures," one Jehovah’s Witness told Forum
18. The community will continue to meet, he insisted. Officials insist the
gathering was illegal.

The threats to the Jehovah’s Witnesses came as the long-running trial of
Baptist pastor Hamid Shabanov drags on in the north-western town of
Zakatala [Zaqatala]. At the same time, the Abu-Bekr mosque in the capital
Baku and the Georgian Orthodox church in the village of Kurmukh (near Gakh
[Qax]) remain closed by the authorities. Azeri customs officials also
continued to confiscate religious literature, as part of the country’s
system of religious censorship (see forthcoming F18News article).

Anar Alizade, who handles non-Muslim religious communities at the State
Committee for Work with Religious Organisations, insisted that the Gyanja
police were acting in accordance with the law. "It wasn’t a raid," he told
Forum 18 from Baku on 28 January. "The Jehovah’s Witnesses violated the law
as they are not registered in Gyanja."

Asked which law banned individuals from meeting for religious purposes in
private homes Alizade cited Azerbaijan’s Civil Code, insisting that it
requires legal entities to function only in the place where they are
registered. "The Jehovah’s Witnesses only have a registered organisation in
Baku, so they can only function there," he told Forum 18. Told that Forum
18 could find no part of the Civil Code that banned individuals without a
legally-registered entity from meeting for worship, Alizade repeated that
such worship without registration is banned.

Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 on 22 January that some 80 adherents had
gathered in a private home in Sevinj on 18 January "to study the Bible and
articles in our Watchtower magazine". They said police arrived about noon,
yelling at those present and seizing nine of those present, forcing them to
go to the Kapaz District police station.

There, officers shouted at the nine detainees, criticising their faith,
asking why they do not go to mosques and why they had joined the Jehovah’s
Witnesses. Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 that none of the detainees was
beaten. "Police wouldn’t say why they had been detained but tried to force
them to write and sign statements. But they all refused." Jehovah’s
Witnesses report that they were threatened with prosecution under Article
299 of the Code of Administrative Offences, though officers refused to
specify which offences under the Article they were accused of violating.

Article 299 of the Civil Code lists three "offences": avoiding state
registration, violating regulations over organising religious events and
attracting children to religious events. Individuals violating this Article
are punished with fines of between 10 and 15 times the minimum monthly
wage. However, Azerbaijani law does not require state registration before
religious activity can be conducted, despite state officials regularly
insisting that the law does require this.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses report that five of the nine detainees were freed
in the afternoon, while the other four – three men and one woman – were
released only in the evening after seven hours detention. The police told
them that investigations would continue and they could be punished.
However, Jehovah’s Witnesses confirmed to Forum 18 on 28 January that
police have so far taken no further action against the nine. "I doubt any
investigation is going on," one Jehovah’s Witness told Forum 18. "The whole
raid was designed to intimidate them." The nine will be filing complaints
against the police.

Jehovah’s Witness in Azerbaijan state that this was the first raid on one
of their meetings since a raid in Baku in November 2008 (see F18News 13
November 2008 < 1217>).

Forum 18 was unable to speak to Firdovsi Kerimov, the Gyanja
representative of the State Committee for Work with Religious
Organisations. The man who answered both his office phone and his mobile on
23 January said he was not available and hung up immediately. Subsequent
calls went unanswered.

Declining to comment on why the peaceful Jehovah’s Witness meeting had
been raided were officers of the Kapaz District police. Reached on 23
January, the duty officer – who did not give his name – referred all
enquiries to the District police chief, Elchin Gasymov. However, the man
who answered Gasymov’s phone on 28 January told Forum 18 it was a wrong
number.

Officials have repeatedly insisted in the Azeri media that the Jehovah’s
Witness meeting was "illegal". Several television stations reported on the
raid, including ANS on 20 January, a day marked as "Black January"
commemorating the victims of the brutal Soviet assault on Baku in 1990.
Kerimov of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations was
interviewed on ANS claiming – without evidence – that Jehovah’s Witnesses
spoke of Armenians as "brothers" and that they would not take up arms
against them. "Statements like that from officials may incite people
against the community," one commentator told Forum 18 from Baku.

80 Jehovah’s Witness prisoners of conscience, jailed for refusing to do
compulsory military service, are in prison in Armenia (see F18News 11
December 2008 < 1228>).

Azeri officials frequently portray minority religious communities in the
media as traitors to the country and under the sway of foreigners, often
claiming that they are Armenian spies, an inflammatory accusation given the
long-running conflict between Azeris and Armenians over the
Nagorno-Karabakh region. For example the head of the Baptist Union, Ilya
Zenchenko, has been falsely accused of being an "Armenian spy who acts only
for money" (see F18New 30 July 2008
< e_id=1165>).

Meanwhile Baptist Pastor Hamid Shabanov’s trial is due to resume in
Zakatala on 4 February, his lawyer Mirman Aliev told Forum 18 from Baku on
28 January. The Baptist pastor is being tried under Article 228 Part 1 of
the Criminal Code of illegal possession of a weapon, which is punishable by
up to three years’ imprisonment for those found guilty.

Shabanov, his family and his congregation vigorously refute the charge.
They argue that the case was lodged to punish him for leading his Baptist
congregation in his home village of Aliabad near Zakatala which the
authorities do not like (see F18News 13 November 2008
< e_id=1217>).

Another of the congregation’s pastors, Zaur Balaev, was freed from prison
in March 2008 after being sentenced on what his congregation insists were
equally trumped-up charges (see F18News 19 March 2008
< e_id=1102>).

Pastor Shabanov was arrested in June 2008 and spent twenty weeks in
prison, but was transferred to house arrest in November 2008. His trial
began in July 2008 and hearings have dragged on since then. The most recent
hearing took place on 26 January. "The law specifies no limit on the length
of any trial," his lawyer Aliev told Forum 18. "But we will take as long as
we need to have him acquitted, though this is difficult."

Alizade of the State Committee dismissed suggestions that Shabanov is
being punished for his faith. "It’s nothing to do with religion – it’s in
the hands of the Ministry of Justice," he told Forum 18.

Asked why Shabanov’s congregation has been denied state registration for
some 16 years (see eg. F18News 6 November 2008
< e_id=1214>), Alizade responded:
"No-one has complained to us." However, when Forum 18 pointed out that
Baptists have made numerous complaints over many years to the State
Committee, Alizade admitted that complaints had been received. He then also
admitted that officials have been discussing the denial of registration
with Baptists, including a visiting delegation from the European Baptist
Federation in mid-January. (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 < 1192>.

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

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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