Two Women from Jehovah’s Witnesses Sect Released After a Year in Prison

Two women from the sect Jehovah's Witnesses were released after a year's imprisonment. On January 28 the Pirallahi District Court of Baku released a 55-year-old disabled widow Irina Zakharchenko and 38-year-old Valida Jabrailova, who was the guardian of her elderly mother before her arrest. The court sentenced them on charges of distributing banned religious literature in the form of a fine. Having read this sentence, the judge released them in the courtroom. Turan was told by the head of the Monitoring Center for Political Prisoners Elshan Hasanov.

 "For almost a year the two sick women were in prison contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 9 of which guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It was almost a year of meaningless interrogation, humiliation and lawlessness in the Azerbaijani prison and eventually, instead of excuses and compensation, they have been convicted," said Hasanov.

According to him, the authorities do not observe their own declarations of religious tolerance.

Zakharchenko and Jabrailova were arrested by the then Ministry of National Security a year ago.

"Pressure on believers is continued. The imam of the Rahima Khanum mosque Nuhbala Rahimov has been arrested. 58-year-old Haji Inglab Ahadli has been arrested on charges of treason in Salyan. He is kept in the detention center of the State Security Service. Even his relatives were not informed about the arrest. Arrested and convicted are the Nur movement’s members Ismail Mammadov, Eldaniz Hajiyev, Shahin Hasanov, Zakariya Mammadov and Revan Sabzaliyev," Hasanov said.

Of the 93 political prisoners in Azerbaijan, 48 are religious people. -06B--