Terror in name of Jesus – Orthodox vs Jehovah’s Witnesses http://www.watchtower.org/e/20020122/article_01.htm – Politician Guram Sharadze filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the legal entities of Jehovah’s Witnesses. His suit was dismissed on February 29, 2000. However, Sharadze appealed and won. Jehovah’s Witnesses, in turn, appealed to the Supreme Court. On February 22, 2001, the Supreme Court decided against the Witnesses, basically on legal technicalities. The Supreme Court reasoned that the Constitution specifies that religions are to be registered under public law according to an as yet nonexistent law detailing the registration of religious associations. The court concluded that in the absence of this law, Jehovah’s Witnesses could not be registered in any alternative form. However, some 15 other associations supporting religious activity are legally registered in Georgia.

In reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision, Georgia’s Justice Minister, Mikheil Saakashvili, said in a television interview: “From a legal standpoint, the decision is very dubious. I don’t think it’s the most successful page in the history of the Supreme Court.” Zurab Adeishvili, the acting chairman of Georgia’s parliamentary legal committee, told Keston News Service that he was “very concerned” about the ruling because “it encourages extremist forces in our [Georgian Orthodox] Church to suppress religious minority groups.” Sadly, Adeishvili’s concerns proved justified. A few days after the ruling, the violence against Jehovah’s Witnesses resumed. In the year 2001, Witnesses were assaulted by mobs, police, and Orthodox priests on February 27, March 5, March 6, March 27, April 1, April 7, April 29, April 30, May 7, May 20, June 8, June 17, July 11, August 12, September 28, and September 30. And the list goes on and on.

In the midst of this new wave of persecution, the Supreme Court took the unusual step of clarifying its decision publicly, stating: “Unfortunately, the public has wrongly interpreted the annulment by the Supreme Court of the registration of the Union of Jehovah’s Witnesses . . . When the court registration of defendants, as a legal entity of private law, was annulled, their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion was neither directly nor indirectly violated or restricted. Their freedom to change their belief, either alone or jointly with others, either publicly or in private, was not restricted. . . . The Court decision has not restricted the defendants’ right to receive and distribute their ideas and information. It did not prohibit their right to have peaceful meetings.” Link: Terror in name of Jesus – Orthodox vs Jehovah’s Witnesses

Terror in name of Jesus Politician Guram Sharadze filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the legal entities of Jehovah’s Witnesses. His suit was dismissed on February 29, 2000. However, Sharadze appealed and won. Jehovah’s Witnesses, in turn, appealed to the Supreme Court. On February 22, 2001, the Supreme Court decided against the Witnesses, basically on legal technicalities. The Supreme Court reasoned that the Constitution specifies that religions are to be registered under public law according to an as yet nonexistent law detailing the registration of religious associations. The court concluded that in the absence of this law, Jehovah’s Witnesses could not be registered in any alternative form. However, some 15 other associations supporting religious activity are legally registered in Georgia.

In reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision, Georgia’s Justice Minister, Mikheil Saakashvili, said in a television interview: “From a legal standpoint, the decision is very dubious. I don’t think it’s the most successful page in the history of the Supreme Court.” Zurab Adeishvili, the acting chairman of Georgia’s parliamentary legal committee, told Keston News Service that he was “very concerned” about the ruling because “it encourages extremist forces in our [Georgian Orthodox] Church to suppress religious minority groups.” Sadly, Adeishvili’s concerns proved justified. A few days after the ruling, the violence against Jehovah’s Witnesses resumed. In the year 2001, Witnesses were assaulted by mobs, police, and Orthodox priests on February 27, March 5, March 6, March 27, April 1, April 7, April 29, April 30, May 7, May 20, June 8, June 17, July 11, August 12, September 28, and September 30. And the list goes on and on.

In the midst of this new wave of persecution, the Supreme Court took the unusual step of clarifying its decision publicly, stating: “Unfortunately, the public has wrongly interpreted the annulment by the Supreme Court of the registration of the Union of Jehovah’s Witnesses . . . When the court registration of defendants, as a legal entity of private law, was annulled, their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion was neither directly nor indirectly violated or restricted. Their freedom to change their belief, either alone or jointly with others, either publicly or in private, was not restricted. . . . The Court decision has not restricted the defendants’ right to receive and distribute their ideas and information. It did not prohibit their right to have peaceful meetings.” Link: Terror in name of Jesus

Russian authorities employ covert surveillance methods to initiate criminal case

Maksim Kalinin

For Immediate Release
January 24, 2012

YOSHKAR-OLA, Russia—Using old-style Soviet tactics, Russian special forces entered the home of Maksim Kalinin, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and covertly installed audio and video surveillance equipment. On January 25, 2012, Mr. Kalinin will be tried for his religious beliefs.

“In 2010 officers recorded his everyday conversations and then, by twisting the meanings, gave them an extremist slant,” stated Kalinin’s attorney, Yegiazar Chernikov. He continued: “The accusations are all the more absurd because any expression of hatred or enmity is in complete contradiction to the personality of Mr. Kalinin, who is a peaceable and courteous person, a fact confirmed by all of the witnesses questioned during the investigation period.” Mr. Kalinin was officially charged on January 17, 2011.

It is noteworthy that the charges filed against Mr. Kalinin under Article 282(1) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Incitement to Hatred and Enmity) are based on the dubious conclusions of linguistics “experts” from Kemerovo State University. Attempts are presently underway to bring specialists from Kemerovo University to justice for knowingly giving false testimony in similar cases.

Media Contacts:
J. R. Brown, Office of Public Information, tel. +1 718 560 5600
Russia: Grigory Martynov, tel. +7 812 702 2691
Belgium: European Association of Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses, tel. +32 2 782 0015

Source: JW Media

Merrimack, USA: No Rehearing for Kingdom Hall Foes

At their Nov. 16 meeting, Tony Pellegrino, right, and Fran L'Heureux listen as Donna Walles speaks against approving a settlement the would allow a Jehovah's Witness group to continue in the planning process to build a Kingdom Hall in a residential zone on Wire Road. (Credit Carolyn Dube)

The ZBA voted unanimously Wednesday night to uphold their Nov. 16 decision to settle a lawsuit with a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses who want to build on Wire Road.

A plan to build a Kingdom Hall on Wire Road will proceed at the planning board stage after the Zoning Board of Adjustment upheld its decision Wednesday night to grant them a special exception.

With no further discussion on the matter, the ZBA voted to deny the request before them to reconsider the decision they made on Nov. 16.

“I’m floored,” Bob Walles, one of the petitioners for the rehearing said after the meeting. “I realized this wouldn’t be a debate tonight, but I thought they’d at least discuss it.”

On Nov. 16, the board signed a settlement with the Jehovah’s Witnesses that gave them the special exception they needed to pursue Planning Board approval to build a Kingdom Hall at 59 Wire Road. The ZBA had initially denied the group’s special exception in 2010 and upheld their decision when the Jehovah’s Witnesses appealed.

The congregation sued the town, charging its special exception process is unconstitutional in that it lets a board to apply one set of rules to one group and a different set to another. It also charges, among other things, that the town treated the church differently than it would have another denomination violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

During the summer the two sides agreed to settle, but a judge ruled against the agreement, advising the ZBA to handle the matter in town by signing a settlement that gave the special exception. They agreed to the settlement in a 3-2 vote.

On Dec. 12, Bob and Donna Walles, who live directly across from the proposed build site, sent a letter to the town requesting a rehearing on the matter. In the letter, they cited the following four reasons to justify their request:

– That the ZBA determined their decision based on the costs of defending against the lawsuit brought forth by the congregation;
– That the diminution of property values criterion was not addressed at the November hearing.
– That the ZBA improperly delegated the review of traffic and safety to the Planning Board; and
– That state law changes allow the ZBA to hire appropriate professionals to review information that previously was only available to the Planning Board.

According to RSA 677:3, for the ZBA to grant the request for the rehearing, the board must determine that the decision at issue was unlawful or unreasonable.

When ZBA member Mike Marshall made the motion to deny the request, he spoke only to that the request did not meet that criteria.

There was nothing in the letter that brought to light any new information about the project, Patrick Dwyer said in his second of the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

The decision was not the one approximately half a dozen abutters who showed up to the meeting had hoped for.

Former Town Councilor Mike Malzone was furious with the decision saying that the church got a rehearing when they appealed the board’s ruling and this should have, too.

“You wonder why people want to overthrow the government,” Malzone said in the hallway following the board’s vote.

Donna and Bob Walles said they were very disappointed with the decision.

“There’s so many empty properties in this town that would be much more suited to their needs,” Donna Walles said. “I realize it would cost them additional money, but that’s not our problem. There are so many properties that are better suited for them and wouldn’t require a special zoning exception.”

She and her husband have never opposed Skip Therrien’s desire to sell the property, but allowing a church to be built in this location is a bad decision on the town’s behalf, she said.

“They said before that cost to the town was one of their concerns,” Bob Walles said. “If cost to the town was one of their concerns, why do you let someone in that’s not going to pay any taxes?”

In making his recommendation to the board last year to settle the case, the town’s attorney Garry Lane advised the board of the potential that the litigation in this case could cost the town upward of $1 million.

A couple members of the Jehovah’s Witness congregation and their project manager, Ralph Randall, stepped out of the meeting quietly following Wednesday night’s decision. They will meet with the Planning Board on Feb. 7 to continue the conversation they started on Jan. 3. The planning board held off on voting on anything at their meeting earlier this month, to see how the ZBA would rule before continuing discussions about the project.

According to town statutes, this does not have to be the end for the Walles and their neighbors if they don’t want it to. They have 30 days to appeal the decision to the superior court, according to RSA 677:4.

“We’ve had some people from Mallard Point stop by to see what we could do and I think this was what we could do, we just did it. So I’m going to have to regroup and see what my options are,” Bob Walles said.

Following the meeting, ZBA Chairman Tony Pellegrino said he had no further comment on the matter.

Article by Carolyn Dube on http://merrimack.patch.com

Turkmenistan: Four-Year Prison Sentence After “Secret Trial”

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

After a “secret trial” in the capital Ashgabad on 18 January which his family and friends knew nothing about, Jehovah’s Witness Vladimir Nuryllayev was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on charges of “spreading pornography”, a court official told Forum 18 News Service. “All this has been done because he is a Jehovah’s Witness,” fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18. “Vladimir is a highly moral and deeply devout person and has nothing to do with pornography.” The Investigator refused to discuss the case. An unverified report says a Muslim may have been sentenced in 2011 on similar charges for distributing religious discs. Seven other religious prisoners of conscience are known to be in labour camp. Recently freed prisoners have testified of beatings and punishments of solitary confinement. “A member of the Special Police Force (OMON) entered my cell on two occasions and beat me on the head and neck with his baton,” one recalled. A Deputy Justice Minister claimed to a United Nations Committee in November 2011 that Turkmenistan has no political prisoners. The UN Committee called on Turkmenistan to end the “various restrictions impacting negatively on the freedom of religion”.

Two months after his arrest, Jehovah’s Witness Vladimir Nuryllayev has been given a four-year prison term at a “secret trial” in Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabad [Ashgabat] on charges his community insists are fabricated. The court sentenced Nuryllayev on 18 January on charges of “spreading pornography”, a court official, who did not give her name, told Forum 18 News Service from Ashgabad on 24 January. “All this has been done because he is a Jehovah’s Witness,” fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18. “Vladimir is a highly moral and deeply devout person and has nothing to do with pornography.” Community members complain that the trial was held in secret, preventing them from attending to support Nuryllayev. An unverified report indicates that a Muslim may have been imprisoned on similar charges for distributing religious discs.

Forum 18 knows of seven other men serving sentences as religious prisoners of conscience, six of them Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objectors and one Protestant pastor. Former prisoners have testified that they were beaten and maltreated while in labour camp.

Four-year sentence

Judge Iskander Bekturdiyev of Ashgabad’s Azatlyk District Court sentenced Nuryllayev on 18 January under Criminal Code Article 164, Part 2, the court official told Forum 18. This Article punishes “production or distribution of pornographic items” more than once or by a group of people. The maximum penalty is five years’ imprisonment.

The court official added that the written verdict has already been issued (something Forum 18 has been unable to verify) and that Nuryllayev has ten days in which to appeal if he chooses.

The court official could not say if Nuryllayev was present at the trial or not. He has been held at the detention centre at Yashlyk, 40 kms (25 miles) south-east of Ashgabad, since his arrest on 15 November 2011. Officials indicated after his trial that he is likely to remain there for a further two weeks or so before being transferred to a labour camp.

Religious literature confiscated, “fine”, beating and arrest

The 39-year-old Nuryllayev is a building worker who earns his living by renovating private homes. He lives in a small Ashgabad flat with his mother and other relatives.

Nuryllayev’s prosecution began after a conflict with a member of his family who lives in the same flat. The family member who does not share his faith reportedly went to the police in late September 2011 to tell them he is a Jehovah’s Witness and that he kept some religious literature in a cupboard in the flat. The local police officer then arrived and, going straight to the cupboard, confiscated the literature.

On 18 October 2011, the officer ordered Nuryllayev to pay a “fine” of 375 Manats (773 Norwegian Kroner, 101 Euros or 132 US Dollars). Nuryllayev paid the fine the following day, hoping that this would end the case. Although the officer gave him a receipt, neither he nor the receipt indicated what the “fine” was for or what Article of the Code of Administrative Offences it was supposed to relate to.

Two officials who claimed to be from the hyakimlik (local administration) came to Nuryllayev’s flat in the evening of 20 October 2011, insisting that they needed to take away his notebook computer. Because they gave no reason or warrant for the seizure, Nuryllayev tried to cling on to it. However, after he wrote down the two officials’ names, they got angry and began to beat him, sources told Forum 18.

Nuryllayev’s mother, who is incapacitated after an accident, came into the room and saw the blood from her son’s injuries, triggering heart problems.

Police came to Nuryllayev’s home to arrest him on 15 November 2011, after which he was transferred to Yashlyk.

Fabricated accusations?

On 16 November 2011, the day after Nuryllayev’s arrest, the criminal case under Article 164, Part 2 was opened against him by Azatlyk District Police’s Investigation Department with the approval of the District Prosecutor. The investigation was led by Investigator Rejepmurat Kurbanov. The accusation against him was formally lodged on 19 November 2011.

Jehovah’s Witnesses allege that the prosecution assertion that Nuryllayev gave a disc containing pornographic material to two named individuals on two separate occasions in Ashgabad – near a market in September 2011 and in a park in October 2011 – was a fabrication. “Vladimir had never seen the two people before,” Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18. Moreover, they say the notebook computer was the only computer he had, and the disc drive on it had broken.

Investigator Kurbanov refused absolutely to discuss the way he had conducted the investigation or the Jehovah’s Witness claims that the accusation had been fabricated. “It’s good to hear from you,” he told Forum 18 from Ashgabad on 24 January. But he kept repeating “You must ask your questions of the court,” before putting the phone down.

The telephones of the Interior Ministry in Ashgabad were engaged or went unanswered each time Forum 18 called on 24 January.

Muslim sentenced on similar charges?

In early January, as Nuryllayev was awaiting trial, an anonymous message to Radio Liberty’s Turkmen Service – seen by Forum 18 – claimed that an unnamed Muslim man had been imprisoned “last year” merely for distributing religious audio and video discs. The message said that officials had used the accusation of distributing pornography to imprison the Muslim. The message asked that the news be brought to the attention of international human rights organisations.

It remains impossible to verify the truth of the message.

Seydi’s seven religious prisoners of conscience

The seven other known religious prisoners of conscience are all being held at the general regime labour camp in the desert near Seydi in Lebap Region of eastern Turkmenistan.

The six imprisoned Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objectors are: Dovleyet Byashimov 18 months, Turkmenabad (formerly Charjew) Court, August 2010; Ahmet Hudaybergenov, 18 months, Turkmenabad Court, September 2010; Sunet Japbarov, 18 months, Turkmenabad Court, December 2010; Matkarim Aminov, 18 months, Dashoguz Court, December 2010; Dovran Matyakubov, 18 months, Dashoguz Court, December 2010; and Mahmud Hudaybergenov, 2 years, Dashoguz Court, August 2011 (see F18News 22 September 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1616).

Turkmenistan has no alternative to military service, which is compulsory for all young men. All six are serving sentences under Article 219, Part 1 of the Criminal Code. This punishes refusal to serve in the armed forces in peacetime with a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment. Turkmenistan has ignored international calls for conscientious objector prisoners to be freed and a civilian alternative service to be introduced (see F18News 29 April 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1566).

The ninth known religious prisoner of conscience is Pastor Ilmurad Nurliev, who leads Light to the World Protestant Church in the town of Mary east of Ashgabad. Arrested in August 2010, he was given a four-year labour camp term in October 2010 with “forcible medical treatment” on charges of swindling. His community insist the charges were fabricated to punish him for his religious activity. He had tried in vain to register his church. In December 2010 he was transferred to the Seydi Labour Camp (see F18News 22 December 2010 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1525).

Nurliev’s friends have expressed renewed concern over his continued imprisonment. “So many prisoner amnesties, but he never comes out!” one told Forum 18 in frustration. Officials insisted to several of his friends in December 2011 that he would be freed in that month’s amnesty, but it did not happen.

Nurliev’s wife Maya has been able to visit him in Seydi camp, his friends note. Each 30 days a 30-minute visit is allowed. A 24-hour visit is now possible more frequently. Such visits used to be allowed once every 60 days. In late 2011 this was changed to once every 45 days. However, the journey for Maya from their home in Mary to the camp takes nearly a full day on public transport.

The address of Seydi Labour Camp is:

Turkmenistan,

746222 Lebap vilayet,

Seydi,

uchr. LB-K/12

Another Jehovah’s Witness is still believed to be serving a suspended sentence under Article 219, Part 1: Denis Petrenko, given a two year suspended sentence in Ashgabad in April 2010. This required him to live under some restrictions at home and report regularly to the authorities (see F18News 29 April 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1566).

Prison beatings

Three former religious prisoners of conscience – who all served their sentences at the Seydi camp – reveal that solitary confinement and beatings were routine treatment within the camp.

“The cell was cold. I could only sleep in a seated position and I was barely fed,” Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector Sakhetmurad Annamamedov, who was freed from the Seydi camp in May 2011 at the end of his two-year sentence, testified. “A member of the Special Police Force (OMON) entered my cell on two occasions and beat me on the head and neck with his baton.”

Sakhetmurad’s brother, Mukhammedmurad Annamamedov endured similar treatment during his two years of imprisonment, which also ended in May 2011. “I spent six consecutive days in solitary confinement,” Jehovah’s Witnesses quoted him as testifying. “There was nothing in the cell, only bare concrete. Officers threatened that if I did not renounce my religion, they would put me in a much stricter prison regime.”

Shadurdy Ushotov, who was freed from the Seydi camp in July 2011 after completing a two-year sentence, sustained head injuries from a beating he received from an OMON officer. “I needed six stitches to close the wound,” Jehovah’s Witnesses quoted him as testifying.

Prisoners and their families have long noted the harsh conditions in the camp, where it is very hot in summer and freezing in winter. “It is set in the desert and is close to several chemical works,” the family of then Baptist prisoner of conscience Vyacheslav Kalataevsky told Forum 18 in 2007. “Of course conditions are not easy. It is like something from the Middle Ages” (see F18News 3 July 2007 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=986).

United Nations’ criticism

Turkmen officials have repeatedly denied that anyone is punished for religious or political reasons. Speaking at the 18 November 2011 session in Geneva of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to consider Turkmenistan’s report, a member of the Turkmen delegation First Deputy Justice Minister Batyr Arniyazov “said that there were no political prisoners or politically motivated prosecutions in Turkmenistan”, according to the UN summary of the session (E/C.12/2011/SR.38). “All prisoners had been convicted of criminal offences. Due process was guaranteed and court proceedings were open to the public except in specific cases provided for under the law; all decisions were, however, made public.”

In its 2 December 2011 conclusions (E/C.12/TKM/CO/1), the Committee expressed concern that members of some religious groups in Turkmenistan “do not fully enjoy the right to cultural expression in the field of religion and that some religious confessions remain unregistered on account of undue registration criteria. The Committee is also concerned about the ban on worship in private homes and on the public wearing of religious garb, except by religious leaders, as contained in the 2003 Religion Law.”

The Committee urged Turkmenistan “to uphold the freedom of religion enshrined in the State party’s Constitution and respect the right of members of registered and unregistered religious groups to freely exercise their religion and culture.” It also called on the country to amend the Religion Law “to remove undue registration criteria pertaining to certain religious groups as well as various restrictions impacting negatively on the freedom of religion”.

Forum 18 was unable to find any official at the Justice Ministry in Ashgabad prepared to discuss the UN recommendations on 24 and 25 January. The telephone of Gurbanberdy Nursakhatov, Deputy Chair of the government’s Gengesh (Council) for Religious Affairs in Ashgabad, went unanswered each time Forum 18 called.

Border confiscations of religious literature and prayer mats

Meanwhile, members of a variety of religious communities complained to Forum 18 of continuing confiscation of religious literature individuals try to bring with them when returning to the country by air, land or sea. In 2010 and 2011, Forum 18 learnt of numerous cases when Muslim and Christian literature – including Korans and Bibles – was confiscated from Turkmens returning from abroad.

One Turkmen who had moved to Istanbul had her one religious book – a copy of the Koran – confiscated from her at Ashgabad airport in late 2010. In early 2011, a Protestant was strip-searched at the airport after one Bible was found in his luggage.

In August 2011, three Muslims who returning by bus from Iran on the road up to Serdar each had a Muslim prayer mat they had bought in Iran confiscated from them, eyewitnesses to the confiscation told Forum 18. The three had decided not to bring back copies of the Koran as they knew they too would have been confiscated.

Lowest haj numbers since 2004 (apart from 2009)

One of the significant restrictions on the religious freedom of Muslims is the severe state limitation on the number that can travel on the annual haj pilgrimage to Mecca. The pilgrimage is an obligation for all able-bodied Muslims who can afford it at least once in their lifetime. On 29 November 2011, the government website reported the return to Turkmenistan after completing the haj of 186 pilgrims. This represents the lowest number of pilgrims since 2004, with the exception of 2009, when no pilgrims were allowed to travel.

The quota for the haj allocated by the Saudi Arabian authorities to Turkmenistan is believed to be about 5,000. Since the 1990s, the Turkmen government has tightly controlled its citizens’ participation, allowing no more than one state-sponsored aeroplane of pilgrims each year and banning pilgrims from travelling independently. Between 2005 and 2008, and again in 2010, only 188 people – including pilgrims and their government minders – were allowed to travel each time. In November 2009, the government abruptly cancelled the group’s departure, allegedly to prevent infection with the H1N1 virus (see F18News 22 September 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1616).

Source: www.forum18.org

Australia: Family’s worst fears realised in crash tragedy

Fatalities … Patricia and Donald Logan had just celebrated 60 years of marriage and visited their newborn great-granddaughter.

WHEN his elderly parents and brother were late for their visit, Gary Logan began to worry. He sent text messages and heard nothing back.

That worry turned to panic when he logged onto smh.com.au and saw images of a red Ford Mondeo, similar to his brother’s, flattened by a truck in a crash on the Hume Highway near Menangle.

He went to his local police station at Campbelltown and his worst fears were realised. His parents, Donald and Patricia Logan, and his younger brother Calvyn had all been killed in the crash at 11.25am on Tuesday.

They had been returning from Canberra after visiting Patricia and Donald’s great-granddaughter, who had been born prematurely on Boxing Day, when the B-double crossed onto the wrong side and collided with their car.

Calvyn’s son, Robert Logan, yesterday said the family were devastated by the loss after recently celebrating Olivia’s birth and Donald and Patricia’s 60th wedding anniversary.

”My grandparents and my dad were greatly respected in the community and loved by everyone,” Robert Logan said. ”They were devoted to their family and to their strong faith as Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

Mourning … Robert Logan, centre, with his wife, and uncle Gary Logan. (Photo: Jonathan Ng)

All three lived in Forster on the mid north coast. Donald and Patricia had moved there 12 years ago after living and working in Sydney and Calvyn had recently retired as a teacher in Canberra to care full-time for his father, who had Parkinson’s disease.

The couple remained active as Jehovah’s Witnesses and elder congressman David Wilson said Donald had been responsible for building 200 Kingdom Halls across NSW in weekend projects. ”They were really well loved,” he said. ”I know you hear this when people die but they really were.”

Police yesterday re-interviewed the 33-year-old truck driver involved in the incident. The Sandy Point man, who was not seriously hurt in the crash, has told police a learner driver pulled out in front of him and forced him to veer across a grass embankment, through a guard rail and onto the other side of the road.

A learner-driver and her father in the area at the time of the crash came forward yesterday but said they were driving appropriately.

Police last night said the 18-year-old female had been cleared. It would be some time before the truck driver’s blood and alcohol tests, taken after the crash, would be available.

The Logan family yesterday appealed for anyone who was on the Hume Highway near Menangle at the time of the crash to come forward.

Article by Nick Ralston on www.smh.com.au

UK: Bearing witness to a marriage milestone

George and Freda Earle

JEHOVAH’S Witnesses Freda and George Earle will be a familiar sight to homeowners around Littlemore.

The couple, who have been married 65 years today, have spent the past 50 years standing on doorsteps across the estate and surrounding areas and spreading the word about their faith.

The Christian-based religious movement is best known for its members’ door-to-door evangelistic work.

Mr Earle, 89, a former British Leyland worker, said he was sure his wife was the one for him the minute he clapped eyes on her in Watlington in 1946. He was driving with a friend when he saw Freda (nee Jelf), walking with a friend.

He said: “I’d just come out of the Army and I was driving along.

“I saw a lovely couple of people and so we stopped for a chat.

The couple shortly after their wedding

“We got on very well and soon realised we liked the same things.”

The couple, who have two children, Christine, 64, and George, 59, and three grandchildren, married at Oxford Register Office 65 years ago today.

They joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses 50 years ago.

Mrs Earle, 88, said it was their shared belief and a love of German and Austrian music which had kept them together so long.

She said: “The minute I met George I thought he was lovely.

“He was just very kind to me.”

Mr Earle added: “We’re not perfect, no-one is, but we work at it and we try and help others. The secret to our long marriage is we apply the Bible.

“It’s like having an old car. You wouldn’t throw the manual away if you wanted to look after it, would you?”

Source: www.oxfordmail.co.uk

RUSSIA: Prisoner of conscience freed but not exonerated

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Seven months after being imprisoned in the Russian city of Orenburg, Muslim prisoner of conscience Asylzhan Kelmukhambetov was freed on 19 January at the end of his second appeal against his 18-month prison term, his lawyer Raulya Rogacheva and family members told Forum 18 News Service. A reader of the works of the late Turkish theologian Said Nursi, Kelmukhambetov had been imprisoned on “extremism”-related charges which he rejected. The Regional Court changed his punishment from imprisonment into a fine, which he is not required to pay due to changes in the Criminal Code. Rogacheva told Forum 18 that “I don’t agree with the verdict as Asylzhan has not been exonerated.” She said she will continue to challenge Kelmukhambetov’s conviction when she gets the written verdict, which generally takes a week to issue. Elsewhere, cases continue on “extremism”-related criminal charges against other Muslims who read Nursi’s works and Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are also subject to raids on their meetings by officials. However, a magistrate in Udmurtia has upheld the rights of a local Jehovah’s Witness community to meet for worship without notifying the authorities first.

[...]

The Federal List

Numerous lower court decisions have found – on highly questionable grounds – that Russian translations of the Islamic theological works of Said Nursi and Jehovah’s Witness publications are “extremist” and so placed them on the Justice Ministry’s Federal List of Extremist Materials (see ‘The battle with “religious extremism” – a return to past methods?’ F18News 28 April 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1288). Once materials are on the Federal List, it is then illegal to distribute or store them for distribution.

Such lower court decisions are of great help to officials seeking to prosecute Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslim readers of Nursi’s works for exercising their freedom of religion or belief. A total of 68 Jehovah’s Witness publications, as well as 15 Russian translations of Nursi’s works, have already been ruled “extremist” However, a recent attempt to find a key Hare Krishna book, the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, “extremist” failed in court in Tomsk (see F18News 5 January 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1652).

“Incitement” trials continue

Meanwhile, the criminal trial of Jehovah’s Witness Maksim Kalinin under Judge Sergei Makarov at Yoshkar-Ola City Court in the Republic of Mari-El has now been set to begin on 25 January, the court told Forum 18 on 20 January.

Like many Jehovah’s Witnesses, Kalinin is being prosecuted under Criminal Code Article 282, Part 1 (“Actions directed at the incitement of hatred [nenavist] or enmity [vrazhda], as well as the humiliation of an individual or group of persons on the basis of .. attitude to religion, .. conducted publicly or through the media”). The case against Kalinin followed August 2010 raids on private homes and a Jehovah’s Witness worship service in Yoshkar-Ola at which he was present. Evidence rests on FSB security service surveillance “using a hidden camera in his home without his knowledge” (see F18News 10 January 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1653).

Also due to resume on 23 January is the criminal trial of a Jehovah’s Witness married couple, Andrei and Lyutsiya Raitin. They face the same charges at their trial in the Siberian city of Chita (see F18News 10 January 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1653).

However, Prosecutors in Akhtubinsk in the southern Astrakhan Region appear to be having further difficulties preparing the case under Article 282, Part 1 against local Jehovah’s Witness Yelena Grigoryeva. The Investigation Committee has rejected the case prepared by the previous investigator Aleksandr Glushchenko, and handed it to a new investigator Boris Fomenkov, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 on 20 January. Fomenkov is now the fifth investigator in the case, which was begun in early 2011. It had appeared that it was close to being presented to court (see F18News 10 January 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1653).

Investigator Fomenkov refused to discuss anything with Forum 18 on 20 January.

Raids by Police

Meanwhile, officials continue to raid Jehovah’s Witness meetings and private homes across Russia. Two police officers in the village of Tyazhinsky in Kemerovo Region visited the homes of two female Jehovah’s Witnesses on 17 January, fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18. Having taken their identity documents, the officers forced them to go to the police station, where they were photographed and subjected to personal questions. The officers threatened to search their homes and drive them out of the village.

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Cheboksary, the capital of the Chuvash Republic, have faced what they believe to be a second recent attempt to conduct surveillance on their religious meetings. On 15 January, they noticed that a man who had recently begun to attend meetings was filming with a concealed camera, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18. A different man who had come along earlier pretending to be interested in learning more about the Bible turned out to be a police employee, they added.

Jehovah’s Witness meetings in Cheboksary and in other towns in Chuvashia were subjected to coordinated raids by the ordinary police, officers from the regional police Anti-Extremism Centre, and OMON special police in September 2011 (see F18News 24 October 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1629).

On 15 December 2011, the Jehovah’s Witness weekly service in a rented hall in Naberezhnyye Chelny in Tatarstan was raided by five men in civilian clothes. The men claimed they were there to conduct an identity check. One of them – Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 they identified him later as Police Captain Ilsur Salakhutdinov – went onto the stage and demanded to see the identity document of the leader of the service. When those present complained that the men were interrupting their service, the men summoned police reinforcements and continued to check the identity documents and copy down the identities of those present.

The police then ordered three Jehovah’s Witnesses to accompany them to the police station. However, they refused as the police presented no written order or reason. “In the hearing of everyone, the police called them ‘clowns’ and forcibly put them in a car,” Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18. At the police station officers photographed and fingerprinted the three men without explaining why they were doing so.

Hidden surveillance, co-ordinated targeting

State agencies, including the FSB security service, have for some years been conducting hidden surveillance of both Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslim readers of Nursi’s works (see eg. F18News 27 July 2010 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1470).

Internal government documents have revealed that moves against Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslim readers of Nursi’s works are co-ordinated at a high state level. Both Jehovah’s Witnesses and Nursi readers have been targeted in ways that suggest that their believers and communities are closely watched by the police and FSB security service – both within and outside their communities. One Russian Orthodox Church diocese has been involved in this, and private employers and public libraries have also been ordered to co-operate in the campaign.(see F18News 12 August 2010 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1478).

Raid by prosecutors

Similarly, Prosecutor’s Office officials in Ufa raided the weekly Jehovah’s Witness meeting on 2 December 2011, held in a rented hall at a house of culture. Two men in civilian clothes, one of whom identified himself as Aleksei Petrov, senior aide to the prosecutor of the city’s October District. Citing anonymous reports of a meeting in the building, he summoned the leader of the Jehovah’s Witness service. One Jehovah’s Witness Ildar Shaimukhametov asked the officials to wait until the end of the service, but Petrov indicated this was not possible. “We’re at work,” he told them.

Shaimukhametov had to miss the service as he was forced to answer the questions put to him, Jehovah’s Witnesses complained. Questions included what literature the Jehovah’s Witnesses were studying during the meeting, how many people were present and whether the authorities had been informed about the meeting. The officials wrote down Shaimukhametov’s personal details, including his address and telephone number. “The believers were surprised at the visit and the questions posed, as the Law on Meetings does not cover such events,” Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18.

On 20 January Forum 18 reached a man at the October District Prosecutor’s Office who initially identified himself as Petrov. However, when Forum 18 began to ask about the December 2011 raid, the man said that Petrov was out of the office and would be back later. When Forum 18 called back, the phone line had been switched to a fax machine.

Right to meet without notification upheld

A magistrate in Udmurtia has upheld the rights of a local Jehovah’s Witness community to meet for worship without notifying the authorities first. On 24 November 2011, Nadezhda Chesnokova, the Magistrate at Judicial Unit No. 4 in the town of Glazov rejected attempts to prosecute community leader Dmitry Semenov under Article 20.2, Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Violations, according to the verdict seen by Forum 18.

Article 20.2 punishes “violation of the established procedure for organising or conducting a gathering, meeting, demonstration, procession or picket”. Fines under this Article were increased 100-fold in 2007.

Article 20.2, Part 1, which punishes organising such an unsanctioned meeting, carries a fine of 1,000 to 2,000 Roubles. (1,000 Roubles, nearly one week’s official minimum wage, is equivalent to 189 Norwegian Kroner, 25 Euros, or 32 US Dollars.)

Article 20.2, Part 2, which punishes carrying out such an unsanctioned meeting, carries a fine on organisers of 1,000 to 2,000 Roubles, and on participants of 500 to 1,000 Roubles.

The case against Semenov was instigated by the local FSB security service and the Prosecutor’s Office, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18. However, Magistrate Chesnokova ruled that “the event held was a form of religious worship by a religious organisation conducted in the form of a meeting which does not demand notifying the local authority”.

An increasing number of people are being fined or threatened with fines under Article 20.2 for organising or conducting meetings for religious worship which has not been specifically approved by the local authorities. Such fines were imposed in 2011 on, among others, Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist and Jehovah’s Witness leaders (see F18News 28 October 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1631).

Police have often raided and searched places of worship – particularly of Jehovah’s Witnesses – but not when services and meetings are underway. Raids on religious communities as they meet for worship are rarer, though these have increased in recent years. In February 2010 armed police with dogs raided a Lutheran Sunday morning service in their church in Kaluga. The Lutheran pastor preaching at that service, drawing on the experience of being raided, later wrote an article with advice on “How to behave during raids” (see F18News 23 March 2010 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1425)

Some lawyers – such as Irina Zagrebina of the Moscow-based Guild of Experts on Religion and Law – argue that punishing meetings for religious worship in private homes or in rented accommodation is a misuse of the Article. She points to Russia’s Constitution, which guarantees in Article 28 the right to meet with others to profess a religion, as well as provisions of the 1997 Religion Law (see F18News 28 October 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1631).

Source: www.forum18.org

KYRGYZSTAN: “We have not been able to pray and worship together”

By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service

Since July 2011, “we have not been able to pray and worship together”, an Ahmadi Muslim complained to Forum 18 News Service. Kyrgyzstan’s State Commission for Religious Affairs (SCRA) has denied registration – or the right to legally exist – to their communities in four locations, citing a National Security Service (NSS) secret police claim that Ahmadi Muslims are a “dangerous movement and against traditional Islam”. Only 135 communities of the state-backed Muslim Board and three Russian Orthodox have gained registration since the repressive Bakiev-era Religion Law came into force in January 2009. Hundreds of mosques, Protestant churches, Jehovah’s Witness and Hare Krishna communities have been left without registration, which requires not only 200 adult citizen founders and SCRA approval but approval from local keneshes (councils). Jehovah’s Witnesses failed in their court challenges over three keneshes’ refusal to approve their lists of founders. “The deputies do not like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and made a decision to refuse to endorse their list,” Ardak Kokotayev, Chair of Naryn city Kenesh, told Forum 18.

Kyrgyzstan’s State Commission for Religious Affairs (SCRA) has given state registration, or the right to legally exist, to only 138 organisations since the repressive Bakiev-era 2009 Religion Law came into force in January 2009. An essential part of the registration process is gaining the approval of local keneshes (councils) for a notarised list of at least 200 adult permanent resident citizen founders of a religious community, with full identification details of each founder. Some keneshes have claimed that the reason they have not approved lists is because the SCRA has not issued Regulations to implement the Law, and Forum 18 News Service has found that the SCRA has challenged a court decision ordering it to register three communities. The continued obstruction comes as SCRA officials have threatened to close down mosques in the southern Osh Region, but this threat does not appear to have been carried out.

No progress has been made by the authorities in dealing with registration applications from – among others – hundreds of mosques, unregistered Protestant churches, and the Hare Krishna community. Unregistered religious activity is – against human rights standards Kyrgyzstan has agreed to implement – banned. Many people are afraid to identify themselves as founders to local and national authorities, even if a community is large enough to have 200 potential founders, and local human rights defenders have condemned the Law as “against the Constitution and discriminatory” (see F18News 16 January 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1655).

[...]

When will Regulations to implement Law be produced?

Many keneshes claim that they cannot approve notarised lists of founders because the SCRA has still not produced Regulations to implement the Religion Law. There have been persistent delays on the part of officials in the SCRA and its predecessor agencies in issuing Regulations to implement the Law (see eg. F18News 13 August 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1336).

Forum 18 asked Odina Artykova, who oversees religious issues in the Education, Science, Information and Religion Department (which reports direct to the Prime Minister), why three years after the Religion Law entered into force in January 2009 implementation Regulations have not been produced. She responded on 12 January that “the status of the SCRA is under question at the moment”, as “it may be placed under one of the ministries”. She went on to state that the government “will bring clarity to this question soon”.

Artykova also stated that the Religion Law will be changed in the second quarter of 2012 (see F18News 16 January 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1655).

SCRA and keneshes block registration applications

The SCRA has claimed not to know why 138 organisations (135 state-backed Muslim and three Russian Orthodox) have been able to gain local kenesh approval for their lists of founders since January 2009, but numerous others have not. Asked what those who cannot get kenesh approval can do, SCRA Director Sharshenov replied to Forum 18 “let them sue them in the courts” (see F18News 16 January 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1655).

But in some instances the SCRA has itself directly intervened to block registration applications. Jehovah’s Witnesses have tried unsuccessfully to register their branches in the southern Naryn, Osh and Jalal-Abad Regions, and told Forum 18 on 10 January that the keneshes and the SCRA “instead of helping us to register have blamed each other for why we cannot be registered”.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses then filed a complaint against the SCRA in Bishkek’s Inter-District Economic Court, which on 21 July 2011 ordered the SCRA to register the Jehovah’s Witnesses in all three regions. However, the SCRA appealed and on 6 October 2011 Bishkek City Court overruled the lower court’s decision. Asked by Forum 18 on 20 December 2011 why the SCRA did not want to register the Jehovah’s Witnesses, SCRA Director Sharshenov stated that the lists of founders submitted to the SCRA by the Jehovah’s Witnesses were not endorsed by the local keneshes in the three regions.

“The deputies do not like the Jehovah’s Witnesses”

Between September and December 2010, Ardak Kokotayev (Chair of Naryn city Kenesh), Bakytbek Adylov (then Chair of Jalal-Abad city Kenesh), and Davletbek Alimbekov (Chair of Osh city Kenesh) all refused in letters – which Forum 18 has seen – to endorse the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ founders’ lists. All three state that although the Religion Law requires local keneshes to endorse such lists, the national authorities have not provided mechanisms or a procedure how to do this.

Kokotayev of Naryn Kenesh told Forum 18 that the Kenesh is a collective body of deputies, and they make joint-decisions. “The deputies do not like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and made a decision to refuse to endorse their list,” he told Forum 18 from Naryn on 12 January.

Asked whether it is within the Kenesh’s power to refuse endorsement if lists of founders and their signatures are in accordance with the Religion Law, Kokotayev repeated that “we make joint decisions. If we do not want to do something, then we decide not to do it”.

Nurdin Ermatov, new Chair of Jalal-Abad Kenesh, told Forum 18 on 12 January that “I am new in this job, and I do not know why Adylov made this decision”. He stated that he did not even know until the conversation with Forum 18 that the Kenesh deals with issues under the Religion Law. “I will look into the matter,” he said.

“Why should local keneshes decide?”

Human rights defenders Valentina Gritsenko of Justice, a human rights group in Jalal-Abad, and Dmitri Kabak of Open Viewpoint in Bishkek both told Forum 18 on 12 January that keneshes “must endorse founders’ lists, if they are in accordance with the Law,” Gritsenko said.

“Why should local keneshes decide whether or not a group of peaceful religious believers can publicly worship?” Kabak asked. “The keneshes should not be given such powers; it is against the Constitution.”

Kabak added that “unfortunately these problems cannot be addressed at the moment on the Constitutional level, since there is no independent Constitutional Chamber or Court in Kyrgyzstan.”

Consequences

Meetings by unregistered communities for worship are not only illegal (despite the human rights standards Kyrgyzstan has agreed to implement); it can also have direct consequences for those who take part in such meetings.

Baptists from the eastern Issyk-Kul Region (whose capital is Karakol) told Forum 18 on 12 January that their unregistered fellow-believers in the Region’s Ak-Terek village were mobbed several times in spring 2011 by a group of villagers. The villagers demanded that the Baptists either renounce their faith or leave the village. The ten-member Church are all Kyrgyz by nationality, and all born in Ak-Terek.

In May 2011 local police held a meeting with village elders and the Baptists, and demanded that local people stop disturbing the Baptists, and that the Baptists gain state registration. There have been no further disturbances, but Baptists commented to Forum 18 that if the Church had been registered – an impossibility owing to the requirement to have 200 founders – “those mobs would not have been so bold in harassing the Church”.

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Bishkek told Forum 18 that their congregations have been able to meet for worship in private homes, but “cannot carry out open and public activity”. Also, their meetings in private homes have been raided. They did not want to share details of this, for fear of state reprisals. But “each time they are raided they are told that they must stop religious activity until they have official registration”.

Artykova of the Education, Science, Information and Religion Department told Forum 18 that “communities who are not registered should be able to carry on religious activities in their private homes even without registration”. But she added that “they cannot carry out public religious activity until they receive registration”. She also commented that “no government agencies have the right to interfere in the private life of citizens”.

Source: www.forum18.org

NAGORNO-KARABAKH: Conscientious objector jailed for 30 months

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Jehovah’s Witness Karen Harutyunyan has been sentenced in the unrecognised entity of Nagorno-Karabakh to 30 months’ imprisonment, for refusing compulsory military service. Even before his trial, he had been transferred to the prison in the hilltop town of Shusha where he will serve his sentence, Forum 18 News Service has learned. The entity’s latest prisoner of conscience, who refused military service because of his religious beliefs, is intending to appeal against the sentence. However, the entity’s Human Rights Ombudsperson Yuri Hairapetyan insisted Harutyunyan broke the law, and doubted that anyone could refuse the entity’s compulsory military service. He asked Forum 18: “How can this be justified? Maybe he’s not even a Jehovah’s Witness.” Ashot Sargsyan, Head of the government’s Department for Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs, described the jail sentence as “absurd” because he claimed it is too mild. He has called for the Criminal Code to be changed to make anyone refusing military service pay a massive fine and do some form of alternative service. Harutyunyan’s imprisonment comes as revisions to the Religion Law are being prepared, which could make the restrictive Law even harsher.

Jehovah’s Witness Karen Harutyunyan was sentenced on 30 December 2011 to 30 months’ imprisonment for refusing compulsory call-up to military service in Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally unrecognised entity in the south Caucasus. Even before his trial, he had been transferred to the prison in the hilltop town of Shusha near Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert, where he will serve his sentence, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 News Service. The entity’s latest prisoner of conscience, who refused military service because of his religious beliefs, is intending to appeal against the sentence. Harutyunyan’s imprisonment comes as the Council of Religions – a body under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister made up of about 20 officials and members of registered religious organisations – is preparing revisions to the Religion Law which could make the restrictive Law even harsher.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s Human Rights Ombudsperson Yuri Hairapetyan insisted Harutyunyan broke the law, and questioned why he rejected military service. “How can someone refuse military service when Nagorno-Karabakh is still in a military situation?” Hairapetyan told Forum 18 from Stepanakert on 17 January. “How can this be justified? Maybe he’s not even a Jehovah’s Witness.”

Ombudsperson Hairapetyan also stated that Harutyunyan had not appealed to him for help. “I can only defend those who appeal to me. I respond to every appeal.”

No civilian alternative service in Nagorno-Karabakh

The 1994 ceasefire that ended the fighting between ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani forces left Nagorno-Karabakh’s status unresolved. This makes military service a sensitive issue for Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian authorities. Nagorno-Karabakh allows young men no alternative to the compulsory two-year military service, and has imprisoned previous conscientious objectors.

The unrecognised entity’s Constitution – adopted by referendum in December 2006 – requires all citizens to take part in defence and made no provision for an alternative non-military service (see F18News 9 November 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=866).

One of the options to prosecute those who refuse military service is Criminal Code Article 327, Part 1. This reads: “Evasion from regular military or alternative service call-up, training exercise or mobilisation, without any order defined by Legislation as grounds for exemption, is punished with arrest for a maximum term of two months, or imprisonment for a maximum term of three years.” (Nagorno-Karabakh has adopted Armenia’s Criminal Code.)

Fellow Jehovah’s Witness prisoner of conscience Areg Hovhanesyan was freed from prison in Shusha in February 2009 after completing a four-year prison term (see F18News 4 May 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1290). He had been sentenced under Article 327, Part 3, which punishes evasion of military service “in conditions of martial law, in war conditions or during military actions” with a sentence of between four and eight years (see F18News 22 February 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=517). In March 2008 he was also sentenced to “re-education” (see F18News 27 March 2008 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1105).

On 30 June 2010, Baptist conscientious objector Armen Mirzoyan was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment under Article 364, Part 1 of the Criminal Code. This 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 (see F18News 1 July 2010 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1463). He has now been freed, and threats to re-imprison him have stopped (see below).

No civilian alternative service in Armenia or Azerbaijan either

Similarly, neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan have a civilian alternative to military service outside military structures. This is despite both countries’ commitments on joining the Council of Europe to introduce civilian alternative service by January 2004.

In Armenia, 58 young conscientious objectors (all Jehovah’s Witnesses) are serving prison sentences, with a further 11 currently on trial, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 on 17 January from the Armenian capital Yerevan. At several points in 2009 and 2010 the number of convicted prisoners reached at least 76. In July 2011, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg ruled that the imprisonment of Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector Vahan Bayatyan violated his right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and awarded him compensation (see F18News 7 July 2011 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1591).

On 10 January the ECtHR ruled in favour of two further Armenian Jehovah’s Witnesses who had been imprisoned for refusing military service on grounds of religious conscience (see forthcoming F18News article).

In Azerbaijan, a small number of conscientious objectors have been sentenced in recent years, including to prison terms. The most recent prisoner, Jehovah’s Witness Farid Mammedov, was freed on 8 June 2011 after serving his nine-month sentence, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 (see F18News 15 September 2010 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1488).

“Three minutes to finish our submissions”

The 18-year-old prisoner of conscience Harutyunyan – who is from the town of Askeran in central Karabakh – was called up in late 2011. But after failing to report for military service at the Askeran District Recruitment Office on 28 November 2011, he was arrested two days later and placed in police custody. On 2 December 2011, a Stepanakert court remanded him in pre-trial detention and he was transferred to Shusha prison. Prosecutors brought charges against him under Criminal Code Article 327, Part 1.

Harutyunyan’s trial took place on 26 and 27 December 2011 at Askeran District Court. Judge Karen Beglaryan found him guilty on 30 December and sentenced him to 30 months’ imprisonment.

One of Harutyunyan’s lawyers complained of the way the trial was conducted. “The trial judge repeatedly cut me and another lawyer off, refusing to let us complete our arguments,” the lawyer told Forum 18 on 16 January from the Armenian capital Yerevan. “He told us we have three minutes to finish our submissions. During the closing argument he would not even let me refer to the Nagorno-Karabakh Constitution.”

The written verdict was issued on 16 January. Harutyunyan’s lawyers told Forum 18 he will appeal against the sentence to the Criminal Division of the Appeal Court.

Norair Pogosyan, Askeran District Prosecutor, refused to discuss the case with Forum 18 on 16 January.

“You can’t call the court decision anything other than absurd”

Ashot Sargsyan, Head of the government’s Department for Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs, condemned the 30-month jail sentence as too mild. “You can’t call the court decision anything other than absurd,” he told the Armregions.am website on 13 January. “What does two and a half years’ imprisonment mean, when a person does not fulfil their constitutional obligation? During a military situation this is equivalent to desertion. It is equally absurd that for two and a half years this deserter will live at the taxpayers’ expense.”

Sargsyan wants Criminal Code Article 327, Part 1 to be amended to allow for a four year sentence as well as a fine of 20 million Drams (310,000 Norwegian Kroner, 40,380 Euros, or 51,440 US Dollars – Karabakh uses Armenian currency). He told Armregions.am that if alternative service is offered it should be three years of working in a hospital, old people’s home or similar institution, plus a fine of 20 million Drams.

Forum 18 reached Sargsyan at his office in Stepanakert on 17 January, but he claimed not to be able to hear anything and put the phone down each time. Forum 18 was therefore unable to find out whether Sargsyan wanted an alternative service to be introduced or not and, if so, whether this should be alternative service under military control, as in Armenia.

At a press conference after the sentence, Karabakh’s Defence Minister Movses Hakopyan said Harutyunyan’s case was one of very few religious objectors to military service. “In Karabakh’s defence army, it occasionally happens that young men at the start of their service speak about their religious convictions,” the Caucasian Knot website quoted him as stating. “In such cases we conduct explanatory conversations with them and the problem is resolved. These lads take the oath and conduct their service conscientiously.”

Minister Hakopyan also stated that a Law on Alternative Service will not be introduced in the next few years.

Imprisonment “is not right”

Albert Voskanyan of the Stepanakert-based Centre for Civilian Initiatives, who has long worked for the right to alternative service and for religious freedom, condemns Harutyunyan’s prison sentence. “Imprisoning those who cannot do military service on religious grounds is not right,” he told Forum 18 from Stepanakert on 17 January.

He points out though that it is Parliament, not the Defence Minister, who decides whether or not a new Alternative Service Law is introduced. “But I see no readiness to introduce one in Parliament either.”

Local human rights defender Karen Ohanjanyan of Helsinki Initiative 92 also supports the introduction of an alternative service for those who cannot perform military service on grounds of conscience. “They shouldn’t be arrested,” he told Alvard Grigoryan, Caucasian Knot’s local correspondent, after Harutyunyan’s arrest. “They should be allowed to do an alternative to military service – work that does not require them to handle weapons.”

Voskanyan – who had visited the earlier imprisoned conscientious objectors in prison in Shusha – lamented that the government had cut off his access to the prison in 2007. “I would like to be able to visit Karen Harutyunyan there to offer him support,” he told Forum 18. “I used to support the prisoners, help them with rehabilitation and give lectures to the staff about European standards for prisoners. But that is no longer possible.”

[...]

Harsher Religion Law planned?

At an October 2011 roundtable organised by Karabakh’s Journalists’ Union to discuss “spiritual security”, Sargsyan of the Department for Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs warned of the alleged “dangers” of “sectarians”, adding that Baptists have recently been trying to “worm their way” into Karabakh, according to a 13 October 2011 report in Azat Artsakh newspaper. He noted that registration had been denied to religious organisations “whose aims are counter to the interests of our country”, which he did not identify.

Sargsyan complained that while the Religion Law that came into force in 2009 bans “soul-hunting”, a derogatory term for sharing one’s faith, Administrative Code punishments are restricted to fines of 1,000 Drams (16 Norwegian Kroner, 2 Euros, or 3 US Dollars). He insisted that punishments for sharing one’s faith should be more precise and higher. He also insisted that parents should be prevented from forcing their children to take part in religious activity.

Sargsyan told the meeting of amendments to the Religion Law then being prepared, which he said would be presented “within days” to Prime Minister Araik Harutyunyan before being presented to Parliament. He also said he was working on a “Concept on Spiritual Security” to be approved by the prime ministerial Council of Religions, a body founded in 2008.

Serpuhi Arzumanyan, the Prime Minister’s secretary, says the Council of Religions is preparing the proposed amendments to the Religion Law and is likely to present its draft soon. “It will then be up to the government, not the Prime Minister, to approve the draft and send it to Parliament, or not,” she told Forum 18 from Stepanakert on 17 January.

No new raids or fines, but public meetings discouraged

Members of several religious communities which have been unable or unwilling to gain registration told Forum 18 that raids and fines in 2010 have not been repeated. Confiscations of religious literature have also stopped. However, such communities remain restricted over public events.

“Although we were warned we cannot meet, we do meet for worship in private homes and the situation is comparatively quiet,” the leader of one unregistered community told Forum 18 on 16 January. “But we can’t rent large halls for meetings and invite people publicly.”

Raids began on unregistered communities in February 2010. First to be raided was Stepanakert’s Seventh-day Adventist congregation, then the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Revival Fire Church. Several Jehovah’s Witnesses and Revival Fire members were given small fines, some of whom were also fingerprinted (see F18News 1 July 2010 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1463).

Ombudsperson Hairapetyan defended the fines to Forum 18 in 2010, claiming that “the fining of them is lawful” (see F18News 1 July 2010 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1463). He dismisses the communities’ complaints about warnings to them not to meet. “They want to turn themselves into martyrs,” he claimed to Forum 18 on 17 January 2011. He also defended restrictions on non-Armenian Apostolic communities. “Such communities obstruct us from living. They’re businesspeople who exploit the population. I defend the rights of the majority.”

The possibility of registration was introduced in Karabakh’s restrictive Religion Law, which entered into force in January 2009. The Law appears to require registration of religious communities and ban unregistered religious activity.

The Law also imposes: state censorship of religious literature; the requirement for 100 adult citizens to register a religious community; an undefined “monopoly” given to the Armenian Apostolic Church over preaching and spreading its faith while restricting other faiths to similarly undefined “rallying their own faithful”; and the vague formulation of restrictions, making the intended implementation of many articles uncertain (see F18News 3 November 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1371).

The community leader told Forum 18 that religious affairs official Sargsyan frequently attacks “religious sects” in comments broadcast by the local media.

Source: www.forum18.org