March 24, 2009
UZBEKISTAN (ANS) -- Three Protestant Christians have each been sentenced to 15 days in prison in the Andijan region of eastern Uzbekistan after police raided a meal in a home where the three were present.
Uzbekistan is located in Central Asia, north of Afghanistan.
Protestants speaking on condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation spoke about the issue to Forum 18 News Service.
According to a story by Forum 18's Mushfig Bayram, three additional Protestants at the house were detained in a homeless center for between four and eleven days, for not having their identification documents with them.
In a separate case, a Baptist in the capital city of Tashkent was given a ten-day prison sentence after about 20 officials from various state agencies – including the Presidential Administration – raided a prayer meeting in a registered church.
Officials told church members that they need special permission for any services aside from those on Sundays, though Forum 18 said the news service can’t find any requirement for this alleged regulation.
Forum 18 said attempts to discuss this increase in detentions of Protestants, and also Muslims, since the beginning of March with any official at the Uzbek Parliament's Human Rights Ombudsperson's Office were unsuccessful.
On March 18, Forum 18 said the news service was told that Ombudsperson Sayora Rashidova was “unavailable” to talk about the detentions, as she was “receiving citizens with complaints.”
Forum 18 was referred to Jamshid Yusupov, but he was also unavailable. Forum 18 was asked to call back several times, and was finally told that Yusupov was also “receiving complaints from citizens and was unavailable.”
Forum 18 said the religious freedom situation is worsening in Uzbekistan. There is a country-wide campaign against followers of the Muslim theologian Said Nursi, with harsh jail sentences being given to five Nursi followers.
Nine others accused of following Nursi remain in prison awaiting trial.
Forum 18 said other prisoners of conscience include one Pentecostal Christian and two Jehovah's Witnesses, who are being held in a labor camp under harsh conditions.
Members of other Protestant churches, as well as Hare Krishna devotees and Jehovah's Witnesses are currently also being detained or harassed. In north-west Uzbekistan, Forum 18 said, officials attempt to obstruct the burials of Protestant Christians and those related to them.
Officials have also stepped up pressure since late 2008 on school children who attend places of worship – including mosques and Christian churches – as well as on their parents.
Following the raid on the meal in the town of Kurgantepe in Andijan Region, Judge Shavkat Shadmanov of Kurgantepe District Criminal Court handed down 15-day jail terms on March 3 to three members of an unregistered Protestant church. They were found guilty of violating Article 241 of the Code of Administrative Offences, which punishes violating the procedure for teaching religious doctrines.
Protestants from Andijan told Forum 18 that the arrested church members are being held together with criminal offenders at the Temporary Detention Center of Kurgantepe Police Department. “They should instead have been sent to the Detention Center for administrative violators at Andijan Regional Police Department,” one Protestant complained to Forum 18.
Shadmanov told Forum 18 that because the defense did not appeal against the court decision within the allowed ten days, the three Protestants can now only complain to the Panel of Judges for any violation of court procedures.
“My decision was based on the Law,” he said. Asked by Forum 18 why individuals must ask for permission to gather for a religious purpose, he replied, “I am not a law-maker, and I don't want to discuss the law.”
Shadmanov said the three are due to be released on March 18.
Shadmanov declined to say whether the detained Protestants would receive any compensation if the Panel of Judges overrule his decision to imprison them.
“I don't think 15-day administrative detention is a very strict punishment for such a violation,” he insisted. However, he warned that if caught a second time for another administrative violation, the three would then face criminal charges.
Forum 18 said problems for the three Protestants began on the evening of March 1, when five police officers from Kurgantepe District Police raided the home of a church member, claiming to be conducting a passport check-up. Two of the officers were from the Anti-Terrorism Department. This was where a group of Protestants and their families had gathered for a meal.
Six men out of those present – the three who were subsequently imprisoned, as well as three others – were detained and taken to the police station.
Forum 18 said the news service was told that Kurgantepe District Police and the Prosecutor's Office “fabricated” administrative violations against the detained Protestants.
The District Prosecutor sanctioned the one-month detention of three of them at the Kurgantepe Rehabilitation Center for Homeless Persons on March 2, for failing to carry identification documents. The three were taken to the Center the same day. However, after intervention on their behalf, one – whose health had deteriorated - was released on March 6, and the two others were released on March 13.
The wife of one of the three mean imprisoned at the Detention Center brought food daily for her husband and the other two men. However, she was unsure if it was given to them, Protestants told Forum 18.
But on March 14, Police Captain Abduvohid Ahmedov, the Chief of the Detention Center, stopped her bringing additional food.
Ahmedov illegally asked the woman to pay 136 U.S. Dollars for “feeding and keeping” the three detained men in the Detention Center, Protestants told Forum 18. “Otherwise he threatened not to release them until she paid the entire amount,” they said.
Ahmedov denied that he was extorting money from the woman. “I will not tell you anything about this case,” he told Forum 18.
In a similar case in Tashkent, Judge Jafar Kurbanov of Mirza-Ulugbek District Criminal Court on March 11 handed down a 10-day jail term to Roman Tsoi, a member of an ethnic Korean Baptist Church. He was found guilty under Uzbekistan Article 201 Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offences, which punishes “violating the procedure for arranging and holding gatherings, meetings, street marches and demonstrations.”
The court decision, seen by Forum 18, records that the charges brought against the Church were based on separate complaints from the Tashkent City Justice Department, the State Religious Affairs Committee and others.
Forum 18 said all the agencies complained to the court that the Baptist Church did not specifically ask for permission to hold a meeting on March 6. The Baptist Church has had official registration with the Tashkent City Justice Department since Oct. 27 1998.
Tsoi is being held at Tashkent City Police Department's Detention Center for administrative violators, Forum 18 was told.
Kurbanov's assistant, who did not give his name, told Forum 18 that Tsoi is due to be released on March 21. He said Kurbanov was unavailable to talk, and he could not comment on the case either.
The Church was raided late in the evening of on March 6, while about 60 congregation members were holding a prayer meeting, Forum 18 was told. Most of those present were ethnic Korean citizens of Uzbekistan. About 20 officials from various state agencies – including the police and the National Security Service (NSS) secret police - broke into the church, some carrying video-cameras.
Five officials gave their names, Forum 18 was told. The officials told the congregation that they were looking for foreign missionaries. “They checked up and took video footage of everyone present.”
One official told church members that they may “only” come to services on Sundays, and that for other meetings they have to ask for specific permission from the Tashkent City Justice Department ten days in advance, Forum 18 said the Baptists reported. The official also “warned that it is prohibited at all to gather in the church building after 10 p.m.”
Forum 18 said officials demanded that the pastor, Artur Kan, write a statement. When he refused to do so he was “threatened” that the church would be stripped of its registration. The officials pressured the pastor and some of those present to write statements, Baptists reported.
Tashkent City's Justice Department referred Forum 18 to one of their officials, but he refused to discuss the case, the news service reported.
Copyright 2009 ASSIST News Service. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
