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
===============================================
Tuesday 14 May 2013
AZERBAIJAN: IMAM AND DRIVER IN PRE-TRIAL DETENTION, CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
IMPRISONED
Imprisoned Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector Kamran Mirzayev is due
to hear tomorrow (15 May) if his appeal has overturned his nine-month
prison sentence, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 News Service. He is one
of two known conscientious objectors imprisoned for refusing Azerbaijan’s
compulsory military service. Azerbaijan committed itself to adopting an
alternative civilian service by January 2003, but failed to do so.
Meanwhile, Imam Taleh Bagirov – who led prayers and preached at a Shia
mosque near Baku in defiance of the authorities’ pressure – is in his
second month of pre-trial detention, together with his driver. Community
members insist the accusations against them are fabricated. The
investigator leading the criminal case, Vusal Salehov from the Police
Department for the Fight Against Organised Crime, refused to discuss the
case with Forum 18.
AZERBAIJAN: IMAM AND DRIVER IN PRE-TRIAL DETENTION, CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
IMPRISONED
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
After two months’ imprisonment, Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector
Kamran Mirzayev is due to hear tomorrow (15 May) if his appeal has
overturned his nine-month prison term for refusing compulsory military
service on grounds of religious conscience, Forum 18 News Service has
learnt. Mirzayev is one of two known imprisoned conscientious objectors in
Azerbaijan. In a separate case, Imam Taleh Bagirov and his driver Anar
Melikov are in their second month of prison awaiting criminal trial on
drugs and weapons charges which their community members insist have been
fabricated. They say the authorities were unhappy at Bagirov’s preaching
against the Caucasian Muslim Board and state officials.
“Taleh Bagirov has been imprisoned for his social and political activity,
as well as his preaching in the mosque,” his lawyer Javad Javadov told
Forum 18 from the capital Baku on 14 May. “He was very harsh in his
criticism of the Caucasian Muslim Board and of officials. They didn’t like
his rhetoric.”
Javadov claimed that police often plant drugs or weapons on individuals
they wish to imprison for political reasons.
Defying state-backed mosque control
The 29-year-old Imam Taleh Bagirov (also known as Bagirzade) preached at
the Hazrat Abulfaz Aga Mosque in the village of Mastaga on the Absheron
peninsula near Baku. The mosque was built by local Shia Muslims. It gained
state registration in June 2010, the State Committee website notes.
Like all mosques in Azerbaijan, the government insisted Hazrat Abulfaz Aga
Mosque has to be controlled by the Caucasian Muslim Board, which named its
imam. However, many mosque members rejected the imam named by the Board,
Mirjafar Hasanli. They welcomed instead Bagirov and another theologian
Zulfugar Mikailzade to lead Friday prayers and give the sermon. Indeed,
mosque members often prevented the Board-appointed imam from entering the
mosque.
The 2009 Religion Law requires all mosques to belong to the state-backed
Caucasian Muslim Board. Independent mosques are banned. Many religious
communities of other faiths have been denied state registration and are
subjected to threats, raids and fines (see Forum 18’s religious freedom
survey of Azerbaijan ).
Many mosques – including those both inside and outside the Muslim Board –
have been forced to close down. Sunni mosques – such as one in Azerbaijan’s
second city Gyanja [Gäncä] – have been particularly targeted for enforced
closure and confiscation (see F18News 18 September 2009
).
Muslims – and others – who conduct religious activity outside the framework
of state-approved places of worship face harassment, such as the Baku-based
Muslim Zeka Miragayev whose home was raided in May 2012 (see F18News 11
July 2012 ).
Criticising the authorities
Bagirov is known for his often harsh criticism of the Azerbaijani
government as well as of the Caucasian Muslim Board.
After university in Baku, Bagirov received religious education in Qom in
Iran and Najaf in Iraq, two of Shia Islam’s holiest cities and centres of
learning. He returned to Azerbaijan in May 2011. That month Bagirov was
arrested and subsequently imprisoned for 18 months for his participation in
demonstrations against bans on the headscarf for girls in schools. He was
not freed until November 2012. Mikailzade had received a suspended
sentence.
In sermons shared on social media, Bagirov compared the government to the
Egyptian pharaohs, and called Muslims out into the streets, independent
Baku journalist Idrak Abbasov wrote in a 5 April article for the Institute
for War and Peace Reporting.
“No matter how many evil-doers there are in this world, how many men in
black masks and guns, Allah is with us,” Abbasov quoted Bagirov as saying
in one sermon. “You have stolen people’s land, you have stolen the oil, and
you still sit there with no one to say anything to you. Now you want to
rule in the mosque too? No matter how influential an official is, he cannot
rule inside the mosque.”
Heroin, pistol, bullets?
Bagirov and his driver Melikov were arrested on 31 March by officers of
Baku’s Sabunchu District police. Officers later claimed they had found just
over a gram of heroin when they searched Bagirov, and a pistol, bullets and
a knife when they searched Melikov.
When the authorities sought to imprison Baptist Pastor Hamid Shabanov in
2008 for leading an unregistered religious community in his home village of
Aliabad, they chose to lodge criminal charges of owning an illegal gun. He
and his church members insist the Russian gun – dating back to 1895 – on
which the case was based was planted by police. Pastor Shabanov spent seven
months in prison and under house arrest (see F18News 12 February 2009
).
Elchin Gasymov, a theologian who regularly attended the Hazrat Abulfaz Aga
Mosque, rejected the authorities’ allegations against Bagirov. “We condemn
Taleh’s arrest,” he told Radio Free Europe’s Azerbaijani service on 5
April. “He is a theologian and a person concerned about the fate of the
people.” He said neither he nor any other mosque member believed the drugs
accusations against Bagirov, describing them as “impossible”.
“At first there was pressure not to allow Taleh into the mosque,” Gasymov
told Radio Free Europe. He said pressure on the mosque from the State
Committee for Work with Religious Organisations had stopped after Bagirov’s
arrest.
A mosque official, who asked not to be named, told Radio Free Europe the
village Administration as well as higher-level officials had warned the
mosque not to allow Bagirov to lead prayers or preach there.
The head of Mastaga Administration, Zulfugar Jafarov, insisted to Radio
Free Europe’s Azerbaijani service on 5 April that all was quiet in the
Hazrat Abulfaz Aga Mosque. “People are conducting their rituals. No warning
has been given to the mosque.”
Police beating?
Bagirov and Melikov were initially held at Sabunchu District Police
station. On 2 April, Baku’s Sabunchu District Court ordered their detention
in pre-trial custody for two months while the case is investigated. The two
men were transferred that day to the Police Department for the Fight
Against Organised Crime. In mid-April, Bagirov and Melikov were transferred
to the Investigation Isolation Prison in Kurdakhani north of Baku.
Bagirov’s lawyer Javadov met his client on 3 April at the Department for
the Fight Against Organised Crime. The lawyer told journalists the same day
that at Sabunchu District police station after his arrest, officers tied
Bagirov’s hands and feet together and beat him. Because his hands were so
tightly bound, he lost the ability to move his right hand. Javadov said
signs of the beatings were still visible on Bagirov’s body.
Forum 18 tried to reach Colonel Javanshir Babayev, head of Sabunchu
District Police, on 14 May. Although officers said he was in his office
they said they were unable to give Forum 18 his direct telephone number.
The same day Ali Aliyev, who said he was one of Colonel Babayev’s aides,
said he did not recall Bagirov’s case. “But we don’t beat detainees,”
Aliyev insisted to Forum 18. “Our senior officers take a very serious
approach to that.”
Three years’ imprisonment?
Bagirov is facing charges under Criminal Code Article 234.1. This punishes
production, purchase, storage, transfer or sale of drugs with a prison term
of up to three years. Melikov faces criminal charges of illegal possession
of weapons.
The case against Bagirov is being led by Vusal Salehov, an investigator
from the Police Department for the Fight Against Organised Crime. Reached
on 14 May, he immediately put down the phone as soon as Forum 18 introduced
itself. Subsequent calls went unanswered.
The lawyer Javadov told Forum 18 he believes the pre-trial detention will
be extended further when it runs out at the end of May. He applied to court
for his client to be transferred to house arrest while the investigation
against him continues. However, the suit was held by Sabunchu District
Court for a month before being handed to Narimanov District Court. There on
3 May, Judge Abbas Aliyev rejected the suit.
Bagirov, who was allowed to appear and speak at the 3 May hearing, told the
court he expected nothing from it. “The reason for my arrest is the
injustice ruling in this country,” Islamazeri.az quoted him as declaring.
Javadov lodged an appeal on Bagirov’s behalf to Baku Appeal Court against
the lower court decision. However, on 13 May Judge Abid Abdinbayov rejected
the appeal.
Javadov told Forum 18 that he had visited Bagirov again at the detention
facility at Kurdakhani on 13 May. “He now has the Koran and some other
books, and is not prevented from praying. However, the prison won’t let him
have all the books that have been brought for him.”
Nine months’ imprisonment
Jehovah’s Witness Kamran Mirzayev – who was imprisoned after rejecting
Azerbaijan’s compulsory military service on grounds of religious conscience
– has tried to overturn his prison term. His appeal was heard on 14 May by
a panel of judges at Sheki Appeal Court, chaired by Judge Humbat Salimov.
The Court said the decision is to be officially announced on 15 May,
Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18. Officials at the Court refused to give
Forum 18 any information on 14 May.
The 18-year-old Mirzayev, who lived in Baku, is originally from the town of
Goychay [Göyçay] in central Azerbaijan, which is still his
officially-registered place of residence.
A criminal case was opened against him after he declared that he could not
serve in the armed forces and wished to do an alternative, non-military
service. The case was launched under Article 321.1 of the Criminal Code.
This states: “Evasion without lawful grounds of call-up to military service
or of mobilisation, with the purpose of evading serving in the military, is
punishable by imprisonment for up to two years [in peacetime]”.
Mirzayev was summoned for trial on 12 March at Goychay Court. There, Judge
Farhad Efendiyev sentenced him to nine months’ imprisonment, according to
court documents seen by Forum 18. He was arrested in court once the verdict
was announced, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18. He then lodged the appeal
to Sheki Appeal Court.
Still imprisoned
The other current known imprisoned conscientious objector is Fakhraddin
Mirzayev (no relation of Kamran). A Jehovah’s Witness from Gyanja, he had
his 20th birthday in prison on 19 March.
Fakhraddin Mirzayev was sentenced at Gyanja’s Kapaz District Court on 25
September 2012 to one year’s imprisonment under Article 321.1 of the
Criminal Code. On 21 November 2012 a panel of three judges at Gyanja Appeal
Court upheld the decision of the lower court.
Fakhraddin Mirzayev has lodged a further appeal to Azerbaijan’s Supreme
Court and is awaiting a hearing, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18 on 14
May.
Originally held in Gyanja, after his November 2012 appeal was rejected
Fakhraddin Mirzayev was transferred to prison camp No. 5 in the village of
Halaj near Salyan, southwest of Baku. Human rights defender Eldar Zeynalov
pointed out to Forum 18 that the prison’s distance from Mirzayev’s home
town represents an “additional punishment” for him (see F18News 17 January
2013 ).
The prison address is:
5 nomreli Cezacekme muessisesi
Halaj settlement
Salyan region
Azerbaijan
Council of Europe concern
Fakhraddin Mirzayev was included in the 22 January 2013 list of political
prisoners in Azerbaijan prepared by Christoph Strässer, Rapporteur of the
Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Legal Affairs and
Human Rights (Doc. 13079 Add). It noted that in cases involving Turkey and
Armenia, “the European Court of Human Rights has established the duty to
establish an alternative service for conscientious objectors to military
service”.
The report also noted two cases lodged against Azerbaijan at the
Strasbourg-based ECtHR by former imprisoned conscientious objectors:
Mushfiq Mammedov and Samir Huseynov v. Azerbaijan (Application No.
14604/08) and Farid Mammedov v. Azerbaijan (Application No. 45823/11). All
three former prisoners had been convicted under Criminal Code Article 321.1
(see F18News 16 October 2012
).
The ECtHR told Forum 18 from Strasbourg on 14 May that no admissibility
decisions have yet been taken in either of these cases.
Conscientious objection “dangerous”?
Elshad Iskenderov, chair of the State Committee in Baku, rejected concerns
that those in Azerbaijan who refuse compulsory military service on grounds
of religious conscience “come under pressure”. He complained that those who
raise these concerns “are not interested in how dangerous these evasions
[of military service] are for the national security of Azerbaijan, [..]
whose land is occupied,” he said in an interview with Trend news agency,
published on 6 May and also reproduced on the State Committee website.
When Azerbaijan entered the Council of Europe in 2001, it committed itself
to pardon and free imprisoned conscientious objectors, and to introduce
civilian alternative service, by January 2003.
At the time of accession to the Council of Europe, senior Azerbaijani
politicians pledged to implement the commitments in full. “We studied the
list of commitments received on the eve of Azerbaijan’s accession to the
Council of Europe and would like to assure you that after becoming a full
member state of the Council of Europe, Azerbaijan will spare no efforts to
implement these commitments,” President Heydar Aliyev, Murtuz Aleskerov,
Chair of Parliament (Milli Mejlis), and Prime Minister Artur Rasi-Zade
wrote in a joint letter to the Council of Europe on 25 March 2000.
However, Azerbaijan has to date failed to pardon and free imprisoned
conscientious objectors, or to introduce civilian alternative service (see
Forum 18’s religious freedom survey of Azerbaijan
). (END)
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 .
A compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments can be found at
.
For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the international
community can help establish religious freedom in Azerbaijan, see
.
A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
.
(END)
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