On 2 December, a Bishkek court rejected a General Prosecutor s Office suit to ban Jehovah s Witness books and videos as "extremist", saying it had been filed under the wrong procedure. The General Prosecutor s Office official who took the case to court said it will not appeal. "The repression is postponed for now," said Syinat Sultanalieva of Human Rights Watch. The NSC secret police – which backed the ban attempt – is also pushing to have Jehovah s Witnesses banned. The General Prosecutor s Office official said he is not aware of any suit being prepared. The NSC officer investigating a 2-year-old criminal case against unspecified Jehovah s Witnesses refused to give information, citing the "secrecy of the investigation".
Police raided the home of Tashkent Muslim Laziz Asadov, seizing two Korans. The search warrant claimed he is implicated in a criminal case against a man he does not know and that they watched speeches criticising Uzbekistan s regime and complaining that Muslims have no freedom. He fled abroad. The criminal trial of Muslim prisoner of conscience Fazilkhoja Arifkhojayev might begin in Tashkent on 10 January. He "will probably be given a prison term for crimes he did not commit," says his brother Jamol. Police refused to discuss the latest torture, or whether the suspect torturers are being brought to justice in line with Uzbekistan s human rights obligations.
The UN Human Rights Committee has again found that the authorities violated the rights of Jehovah s Witnesses by arbitrarily refusing their communities in Naryn, Osh and Jalal-Abad state registration. The State Commission for Religious Affairs must review the denials, provide "adequate compensation", "take all steps necessary to prevent similar violations from occurring", and inform the UN of what it has done within 180 days. The SCRA ignored a similar 2019 UN decision. Deputy Director Gulnaz Isayeva refused to say why it continues to deny these Jehovah s Witness registration applications, and whether Ahmadi Muslims, who were earlier told they could not register, would succeed in any new application.
On 2 December, the upper house of Parliament approved in revised form amendments to the Religion Law to make holding religious events away from state-registered places of worship more difficult. The amendments now return to the lower house. The Senate narrowed the type of events that would need to undergo the burdensome process of seeking special official permission in advance. A legal specialist questions whether ordinary police officers would know that the new requirements – if adopted – would not apply to religious communities meeting in rented premises. "Much will depend on the instructions of religious affairs authorities and the discretion of local or national officials," the legal specialist told Forum 18.
Jehovah s Witness teaching "is contradictory and oriented towards people who don t know the fundamentals of religion and the Bible" and based on "the personal views of the founders of the organisation who misinterpret the Bible", NSC secret police chief Kamchybek Tashiyev claimed to the General Prosecutor in July. He called for their literature to be banned and a ban on the entire organisation to be considered (while the NSC continues a criminal case). Without informing Jehovah s Witnesses, the General Prosecutor s Office lodged a suit to Bishkek s Pervomaisky District Court for 13 books and 6 videos to be declared "extremist". The case is due to resume in court on Thursday morning (2 December).