YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, ARMENPRESS. During the recent border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Baku carried out a multi-pronged information war using both real and fake accounts. This included the spread of misinformation and various forms of threats against numerous Armenian and foreign social media users and activists.
Multiple prosecutions and fines of Muslims - who in different parts of Azerbaijan met for Islamic worship in homes without state permission - have followed raids by police and State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations officials. The Muslims were each fined the equivalent of about two months average wages for those in formal work. For people in rural areas, those without a formal job, or pensioners, such fines are a heavy financial burden.
On 22 September, a Goranboy court jailed 22-year-old Jehovah s Witness Seymur Mammadov for nine months for refusing compulsory military service on conscientious grounds. On 25 July – two days after his 18th birthday – officers seized conscientious objector Royal Karimov and forcibly took him to a military unit in Ganca, where he is still held. Baku s Sabail District Court extended to March 2023 the pre-trial detention of Shia Muslim Imam Sardar Babayev, held on treason charges since October 2021, Babayev s lawyer Javad Javadov told Forum 18.