10 March 2021
Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18
Prison authorities have repeatedly denied seriously ill Jehovah s Witness prisoner of conscience Shamil Khakimov the specialised medical treatment he needs. The 70-year-old has a bad leg which smells like rotten meat and has had coronavirus symptoms. The UN Mandela Rules for prisoners treatment say medical decisions must be made by doctors, and the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Committee against Torture have both called for Tajikistan to implement the Rules. Yet the prison governor told Forum 18: I do not know what the Mandela Rules are. A Supreme Court official similarly denied knowledge of the Mandela Rules.
5 March 2021
Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18
Independent imam Sirojiddin Abdurahmonov, who was also jailed in 2010, was jailed in February for five and a half years along with an unknown number of others. Conscientious objector Rustamjon Norov s appeal against a three and a half year jail sentence is due on 11 March, and a judge has refused to explain why he allowed a Russian Orthodox nun with no connection to the case to testify for the prosecution.
On 12 February, a court in the capital Dushanbe jailed Imam Sirojiddin Abdurahmonov (widely known as Mullo Sirojiddin) for five years and six months, along with an unknown number of others. The arrests followed a November 2020 National Security Committee (NSC) secret police raid on Imam Abdurahmonov s Dushanbe flat when he was teaching a small group about Islam. The NSC also confiscated the Imam s religious books and computer.
19 February 2021
Olga Glace, Forum 18
Bailiffs accompanied by police used an angle grinder and a crowbar on 17 February to gain access to Minsk s New Life Pentecostal Church to evict it. Officials told the Church they were enforcing a 2009 court order. Aleksey Petrukovich, who signed the enforcement order, refused to explain why the eviction happened, and why force was used. I am indignant. This is a hostile takeover of church property with the excuse of official papers, Sergiy Melyanets, a member of a different Church who witnessed the eviction, told Forum 18.
On 17 February, police and court bailiffs forcibly evicted New Life Full Gospel Church from the building it has used in the capital Minsk since 2002. Some 30 bailiffs, police, and Housing Repairs and Utilities Association officials took part in the eviction. Bailiffs used an angle grinder to cut the door lock to gain entry.
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
7 January 2021
Felix Corley, Forum 18
Despite his offer to perform alternative civilian service, Khujand Military Court today (7 January) jailed Rustamjon Norov for three and a half years, the longest known sentence. The court claimed the 22-year-old Jehovah s Witness conscientious objector falsified his medical history to evade compulsory military service, charges he denies. While held in a military unit in October 2020, he was threatened with torture if he did not put on a military uniform.
Khujand Military Court in northern Tajikistan today (7 January) jailed Rustamjon Norov, a 22-year-old Jehovah s Witness conscientious objector to military service, for three and a half years. Prosecutors accused prisoner of conscience Norov of falsifying his medical history to evade compulsory military service, charges he denies. He had offered to perform alternative civilian service, but against Tajikistan s international human rights obligations the regime does not offer this.