Forum 18 News: Azerbaijan; Uzbekistan
7 July 2006
AZERBAIJAN: CRIMINAL TRIAL RESUMES FOR JEHOVAH'S WITNESS
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=809
Mushfiq Mammedov, a 23-year-old Jehovah's Witness who wants to be allowed to do alternative service in line with Azerbaijan's constitution and international obligations rather than compulsory military service, faces up to two years in prison if convicted. His trial at Baku's Sabail District Court, which began on 30 June, resumes on 12 July. "We don't know how the hearing will go - nor how long the case will last," his mother Sevil Najafova told Forum 18 News Service. "Azerbaijan undertook the obligation to the Council of Europe to adopt a law on alternative service, and not granting alternative service is a clear violation of this commitment," Krzysztof Zyman of the Council of Europe told Forum 18. But Adil Gadjiev of the Human Rights Ombudsperson's Office in Baku insists Azerbaijan is doing nothing wrong. "Signing such commitments doesn't mean we have to accept these rights without a corresponding law."
29 June 2006
UZBEKISTAN: RELIGIOUS LITERATURE CENSORSHIP TIGHTENED
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=805
Uzbekistan has introduced new penalties for the "illegal" production, storage, import and distribution of all forms of religious literature. One Protestant told Forum 18 News Service that "all religious communities already need permission from the government's Religious Affairs Committee for each publication or import." Some Muslims stressed to Forum 18 that the changes merely gave a "legal" basis to what was already going on, one Muslim noting - as the authorities confirmed to Forum 18 - that since the crushing of the Andijan uprising, all imports of Muslim literature have halted. The chair of the state Religious Affairs Committee, Shoazim Minovarov, told Forum 18 that the "illegal" production and distribution of religious literature are "home-produced materials. In any state a publisher must receive a licence to conduct publishing activity and pay taxes." The changes are the latest in a series cracking down on activities the government does not totally control.
3 July 2006
UZBEKISTAN: ANOTHER PROTESTANT FACES CRIMINAL CHARGES
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=807
In Muinak in Karakalpakstan region - where all Protestant activity is banned - local Protestant Lepes Umarov faces up to three years' imprisonment on criminal charges for "breaking the law on religious organisations". The duty officer at the police station told Forum 18 News Service that Umarov was released by the police after several hours' detention in late June after signing "an undertaking not to leave the country". Forum 18 has also learnt that Pentecostal pastor Dmitry Shestakov from Andijan has fled Uzbekistan to escape criminal charges also lodged in June in retaliation for his church work. In Kuvasai in Fergana region, the secret police have questioned the 11-year-old son of the Vitkovsky couple in whose home a Baptist church meets. The church's services have repeatedly been raided in recent months and a judge threatened Viktor Vitkovsky with imprisonment on 27 June. He and his wife were due in court on 3 July.
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