Arrests of Believers

Sources among believers told Turan about a series of detention of Salafis (Wahhabis) morning of March 17. According to unconfirmed reports, the detainees are members of the community mosques Lezghi, Garaçukhur and Mehdiabad.

In turn, the international organization in defense of believers Forum 18 has issued a statement which says that on 10 March Shia Muslim theologian and translator Jeyhun Jafarov became the latest prisoner of conscience to be arrested and ordered held in pre-trial detention by Azerbaijan's NSM secret police, apparently to punish him for exercising his freedom of religion or belief, his friends told Forum 18 News Service. He has been ordered to be held for four months while being investigated for treason. Jafarov's arrest was two weeks after the arrest of five Sunni Muslim prisoners of conscience from Baku, including Mubariz Qarayev, imam of the Lezgin Mosque in Baku's Old City. The Lezgin Mosque is one of many Sunni Muslim mosques the government seeks to close. They five have been ordered to be held for three months by the NSM on criminal charges of selling religious literature which has not been censored by the state. Already held in the same NSM prison are two female Jehovah's Witness prisoners of conscience, Irina Zakharchenko and Valida Jabrayilova, whose appeal against being held in pre-trial detention for three months has been rejected.

"These arrests are evidence of government pressure campaign on the people that exercise their right to freedom of religion," said «Forum 18." The organization reports that family members of the detainees are afraid to say anything.

However, the head of public relations center of MNS Arif Babayev did not confirm the arrest of Mubariz Garayev and others and recommended Turan to address the Interior Ministry.

In turn, the press service of the Interior Ministry did not comment on the request for the detention of believers and promised to respond later. -16D04-