15 February 2021
Felix Corley, Forum 18
A court in Lebap Region jailed 20-year-old Jehovah s Witness conscientious objector Nazar Alliyev for one year for refusing compulsory military service. He is the seventh to be jailed in 2021 so far and joins 14 other jailed conscientious objectors (9 of them serving second sentences). We deeply regret the criminalization of conscientious objection, four UN human rights Special Procedures wrote to the Turkmen government in December 2020, adding that Turkmenistan must provide meaningful alternative service . The regime has not responded to the UN.
On 10 February, a court in the eastern Lebap Region jailed 20-year-old Jehovah s Witness conscientious objector Nazar Alliyev for one year for refusing compulsory military service. He is the seventh conscientious objector known to have been jailed so far in 2021. All had offered to perform an alternative civilian service, but Turkmenistan does not offer this. Turkmenistan has rejected repeated Un