U.N. GROUP URGES ASTANA TO FREE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS TEIMUR AKHMEDOV
Radio Azattyk, 13 October 2017
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations published its opinions with respect to the arrest and conviction of one of the devotees of the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Kazakhstan, Teimur Akhmedov, the press service of the Almaty Christian Center of Jehovah's Witnesses told Azattyk today. The working group calls Kazakhstan immediately to release Teimur Akhmedov, who is, in its opinion, in prison for peacefully sharing his religious convictions with others.
With regard to the arrest of Teimur Akhmedov in January of this year on a charge of inciting religious strife, the published opinion of the Working Group says that this arrest of Akhmedov was arbitrary. The U.N. considers that "there should not have been any judicial proceedings," and at the trial conducted in Kazakhstan "serious violations of the right of Mr. Akhmedov to a just judicial proceeding were committed."
The Working Group considers that the actions of Teimur Akhmedov were absolutely peaceful and within the bounds of freedom of religious confession. He was arrested exclusively for exercising his rights in accordance with article 18 of the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights, the Working Group maintains.
At the present time, Teimur Akhmedov is in the sanatorium of the penal colony of general regime AP-162/3 of the city of Pavlodar.
A city court in Astana on 20 June 2017 refused to grant an appeal of the case of the 61-year-old adherent of the religious association of the Christian Community of Jehovah's Witnesses, Teimur Akhmedov, who on 2 May was sentenced by the Saryarkin district court No. 2 of Astana to five years in prison on a charge of inciting religious strife.
According to the indictment, Teimur Akhmedov made negative statements with regard to Islam and Orthodoxy during so-called conversations that were conducted in the apartment of students, who figured in the case in the capacity of witnesses; in the apartment of a former fellow believer, Astana resident Asaf Guliev; and in Akhmedov's home for watching television. In all three places, the audience was several young men who called themselves students of the Eurasian National University in Astana. Several of them made secret recordings during these conversations. (tr. by PDS, posted 17 October 2017)
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