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  • F18News Summary: Armenia; Belarus; Kazakhstan;

    FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
    http://www.forum18.org/

    The right to believe, to worship and witness
    The right to change one's belief or religion
    The right to join together and express one's belief

    ===============================================
    7 July 2011
    ARMENIA: EUROPEAN COURT FINDS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR WAS WRONGFULLY
    CONVICTED AND JAILED - BUT WHAT WILL GOVERNMENT DO?
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1591
    The European Court of Human Rights has today (7 July) published a Grand
    Chamber judgment finding that Armenia violated Vahan Bayatyan's right to
    freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Bayatyan, an Armenian
    Jehovah's Witness, was imprisoned from September 2002 to July 2003 for
    refusal on grounds of conscience to perform compulsory military service.
    Armenia currently has 69 prisoners of conscience - all Jehovah's Witnesses
    - in jail for refusing conscription. Armenian officials gave only cautious
    responses to the verdict to Forum 18 News Service, but Jehovah's Witnesses
    noted to Forum 18 that it should both lead to the prisoners of conscience
    being freed, and "help our fellow believers who are facing are facing the
    same issue in Azerbaijan and Turkey". Armenia claims amendments to the
    Alternative Service Law now in Parliament will take the current alternative
    service out of the control of the military. But the wording of the
    amendments is unclear and does not unambiguously state this. Lieutenant
    Colonel Sasun Simonyan, who was involved in preparing the amendments, told
    Forum 18 that - as at present - anyone doing alternative service who
    violated their terms of service would be dealt with by the Military
    Prosecutor's Office.
    * See full article below. *


    4 July 2011
    BELARUS: "CLERGY ACCESS IS SOMETHING EXCEPTIONAL IN PRE-TRIAL DETENTION
    CENTRES"
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1589
    Three months after his arrest, the closed trial of Grodno-based journalist
    Andrzej Poczobut on charges of slandering Belarus' president is likely to
    conclude tomorrow (5 July) with the verdict. He has been denied a visit
    from a priest since his April arrest. "He is a true Roman Catholic and all
    this time in detention he has asked for a priest more than once, but the
    prison administration always found excuses not to grant it," his wife
    Aksana Poczobut complained to Forum 18. One of the two Catholic prison
    chaplains, Fr Kazimir Zylis, told Forum 18 he has been waiting for
    permission from the Prosecutor's Office to visit Poczobut. Forum 18 also
    knows of pre-trial detainees denied clergy visits in the KGB secret police
    detention centre in the capital Minsk and in the city's Detention Centre
    No. 1, which is run by the Interior Ministry. "Clergy access is something
    exceptional in pre-trial detention centres," Oleg Gulak of the Belarusian
    Helsinki Committee told Forum 18.


    5 July 2011
    KAZAKHSTAN: "ABSURD" CRIMINAL CHARGE FOR PRAYING FOR THE SICK
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1590
    Pastor Yerzhan Ushanov of the New Life Protestant Church in Taraz could
    face up to two years' imprisonment if criminal charges of harming an
    individual's health, brought by the KNB secret police, reach court. The KNB
    claim a visitor to the church suffered after Pastor Ushanov prayed for him
    using hypnosis, the second time the secret police have brought such charges
    against a Protestant pastor in Jambyl Region. "This is not the first time
    the authorities in southern regions of Kazakhstan bring such absurd
    accusations against pastors for allegedly using hypnosis, while in reality
    all they do is pray for the sick," New Life Church members complained to
    Forum 18 News Service. The police Department for the Fight against
    Extremism, Separatism and

    Terrorism then raided the Church's Sunday worship after an alleged
    complaint of food poisoning and the KNB searched Pastor Ushanov's home. The
    KNB secret police, as well as the ordinary police Department for the Fight
    against Extremism, Separatism and

    Terrorism, both refused to comment on the case to Forum 18.


    7 July 2011
    ARMENIA: EUROPEAN COURT FINDS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR WAS WRONGFULLY
    CONVICTED AND JAILED - BUT WHAT WILL GOVERNMENT DO?

    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1591
    By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service

    Exactly eight years after he brought his case to European Court of Human
    Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg in 2003, the Court's Grand Chamber this
    morning (7 July) ruled that Vahan Bayatyan had his right to freedom of
    thought, conscience and religion violated and awarded him compensation.
    Bayatyan, an Armenian Jehovah's Witness, was imprisoned from September 2002
    to July 2003 for refusal on grounds of conscience to perform compulsory
    military service. Of the 17 judges, only the judge from Armenia, Alvina
    Gyulumyan, dissented from the decision. There are currently 69 imprisoned
    conscientious objectors in Armenia - all Jehovah's Witnesses - and the
    ECtHR judgment directly affects their cases.

    Armenian officials gave only cautious responses to the verdict. "If this is
    the decision of the European Court, the government must pay the
    compensation," Karine Kalantaryan, spokesperson for the Justice Ministry,
    told Forum 18 News Service from the Armenian capital Yerevan on 7 July.
    "The government has always paid compensation handed down in such cases."
    However, asked about the implications of the judgment for the current
    prisoners, she referred to Deputy Justice Minister Emil Babayan. His
    Assistant told Forum 18 the same day that he was out at a conference.

    A senior official of the central government apparatus - who asked not to be
    identified - told Forum 18 that "in the execution of the judgment, the
    government might review the situation of the imprisoned conscientious
    objectors", but gave no promises.

    Jehovah's Witnesses welcomed the judgment. "This landmark judgment by the
    Grand Chamber should lead to the eventual release of the 69 Jehovah's
    Witnesses imprisoned in Armenia, and helpour fellow believers who are
    facing are facing the same issue in Azerbaijan and Turkey," one told Forum
    18 from Yerevan on 7 July.

    The Armenian government claims amendments to the Alternative Service Law
    now in Parliament will take the current alternative service out of the
    control of the military. However, human rights defenders and Jehovah's
    Witnesses have told Forum 18 of their doubt at this claim, as the wording
    of the amendments does not clearly establish this.

    Rights violated

    In today's ECtHR Grand Chamber judgment, the Court found that Bayatyan's
    right, under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights and
    Fundamental Freedoms, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion had
    been violated. It stated that Bayatyan's "failure to report for military
    service was a manifestation of his religious beliefs. His conviction for
    draft evasion therefore amounted to an interference with his freedom to
    manifest his religion as guaranteed by Article 9" (see
    ).

    This overturns the controversial 2009 judgment that Bayatyan's right to
    freedom of thought, conscience and religion had not been violated (see
    Commentary by Derek Brett of Conscience and Peace Tax International at
    ). Bayatyan appealed
    after that judgment (see F18News 7 December 2010
    ).

    The ECtHR today noted, among other points, Armenia's formal commitments to
    respect the right to conscientious objection when it joined the Council of
    Europe (see below). Considering the case, the ECtHR found that the
    conviction and imprisonment was "not necessary in a democratic society" and
    so violated Article 9. Indeed, the Court argued that: "respect on the part
    of the State towards the beliefs of a minority religious group like the
    applicant's by providing them with the opportunity to serve society as
    dictated by their conscience might, far from creating unjust inequalities
    or discrimination as claimed by the Government, rather ensure cohesive and
    stable pluralism and promote religious harmony and tolerance in society."

    The Court's judgment - which is final and cannot be challenged - orders the
    Armenian government to pay compensation to Bayatyan within three months of
    10,000 Euros (5,305,580 Armenian Drams, 77,500 Norwegian Kroner or 14,253
    US Dollars), plus a further 10,000 Euros in costs.

    As well as paying compensation and costs, states are required to abide by
    judgments by also ensuring that the reasons for violations found by the
    ECtHR are removed. This can include changing legislation.

    Other Council of Europe member states which currently imprison
    conscientious objectors are Azerbaijan (see F18News 22 February 2011
    ), and Turkey (see
    F18News 17 March 2010
    ). Today's ECtHR
    judgment - in a comment that may have implications for the laws and
    official actions of both states - noted that "the overwhelming majority" of
    Council of Europe member states have "already recognised in their law and
    practice the right to conscientious objection".

    Armenia's Council of Europe commitment

    On its accession to the Council of Europe in January 2001, Armenia formally
    pledged to: "adopt, within three years of accession [i.e. by 25 January
    2004], a law on alternative service in compliance with European standards
    and, in the meantime, to pardon all conscientious objectors sentenced to
    prison terms or service in disciplinary battalions, allowing them instead
    to choose, when the law on alternative service has come into force to
    perform non-armed military service or alternative civilian service".

    The current Alternative Service Law was adopted in 2003 (coming into force
    on 1 July 2004), but despite amendments in 2004 and 2006, it still fails to
    meet Armenia's Council of Europe commitment to allow a choice of
    "alternative civilian service" to be possible. Jehovah's Witnesses and a
    Molokan who initially accepted the Law's "alternative service" quickly
    abandoned it when it became clear that the "alternative" was controlled and
    overseen by the military. They were soon imprisoned, and Armenian has
    failed follow its Council of Europe commitment to pardon - and therefore
    release - its prisoners of conscience who object to compulsory military
    service (see F18News 7 December 2010
    ).

    69 imprisoned conscientious objectors

    As of the beginning of July, 69 young men - all Jehovah's Witnesses - were
    imprisoned for refusing both military service and the military-controlled
    alternative service, Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18. All were sentenced
    under Article 327, Part 1 of the Criminal Code, which punishes evasion of
    the call-up to military or alternative service. The maximum sentence under
    this article was increased to three years' imprisonment in December 2005.

    Of the current 69 prisoners, four are serving maximum sentences of 36
    months, 35 are serving 30-month sentences, one is serving a 27-month
    sentence, 28 are serving 24-month sentences, one is serving an 18-month
    sentence and one a 12-month sentence. Seven of the prisoners were sentenced
    in 2011, with the most recent two trials in April. The 69 prisoners are
    serving their sentences in prisons in Artik, Erebuni, Kosh and Nubarashen.

    The number of conscientious objector prisoners has hovered around 70 for
    several years, almost all of them Jehovah's Witnesses. One Molokan (an
    early Russian Protestant-style Christian community), Pavel Karavanov, was
    also imprisoned as a conscientious objector, being freed in 2006 (see
    F18News 2 May 2007
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