Azerbaijan received the status of a country in distress

Baku / 30.04.19 / Turan: The United States International Committee on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published a report on the situation in Azerbaijan in 2018. The report says that last year the government of Azerbaijan took a number of positive steps to discuss the issue of religious freedom with the United States and the international community, but religious freedom did not improve significantly. Throughout the year, local police continued to incite, arrest, fine, and persecute religious communities that ignore registration requirements.

The report also noted that the "religious radicals" were found guilty of the attempted assassination of the head of executive power of the city of Ganja in July 2018. They also accused the government of using Islam as a pretext for strengthening the country before Islamic terrorism. "

The report also addressed the issue of prisoners of conscience. It was noted that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) talk about 68 prisoners of conscience, most of whom are members of the Muslim Unity religious movement. In 2018, charges were raised of continuing systematic and comprehensive torture, especially torture against Islamists.

Based on this, Azerbaijan again receives the status of a country in violation of religious freedom and a country with a "systematic and regular, degrading" status of an "alarming country" in the framework of the International Law on Religious Freedom USCIRF (IRFA).

It should be noted that the United States International Committee on Religious Freedom annually publishes periodic reports on the religious situation. -0-