The arrest of Baptist pastor Hamid Shabanov in the remote village of Aliabad in north-western Zakatala region comes three months after his Baptist colleague Zaur Balaev, who is from the same area, was freed from prison. He was also detained on what his family and congregation termed "trumped-up" charges at the time.
"We’re in shock," said the head of Azerbaijan’s Baptist Union, Ilya Zenchenko, in remarks distributed by the news service of rights group Forum 18. "This was a provocation by the police, a deliberately targeted action."
The pastor’s brother was quoted as saying that police aims to halt the activities of Baptist Christians. "Their target is the church." Shabanov’s family insist he has no weapon and that police planted the gun they claim to have found.
POLICE DENIES
However local police denied the charges. "He’s a criminal," the Zakatala regional police was quoted as saying by Forum 18 News Service. Forum 18 said it was suprised as "even under Azerbaijani law individuals are innocent until found guilty in court."
Western countries have in the past expressed concern about an increase in reported religious and political persecution in the country, where Christians are estimated to comprise below seven percent of the mainly Muslim population of over eight million people.
Besides Baptist and other Protestant Christians, at least two Jehovah’s Witness communities have also been raided since the beginning of June, said Forum 18. In the most recent incident on June 11, some 15 police officers reportedly interrupted a Jehovah’s Witness meeting in a private home in Lokbatan, a suburb of the capital Baku.
BEATING DETAINEES
Three of the detainees were allegedly mistreated before being released. A similar Jehovah’s Witness meeting in a private home in the Baku suburb of Surakhani was raided by police on June 3, rights investigators said. The nine men who were present were taken to the police station, beaten, threatened with rape and pressured to renounce their faith, added Forum 18.
Officials have refused to explain these raids, which Forum 18 claims violate the country’s own laws. "The number of raids seems to have stepped up in the past year, with raids on other Jehovah’s Witness communities, as well as Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists and other Protetants," Forum 18 said. Other religious groups, including even some Muslims, are also reportedly targetted by police and secret service agents.
Said Dadashbeyli, a Baku-based Muslim teacher, received a 14-year sentence at a closed trial in December 2007. His lawyer and family claim that he and eight of those sentenced with him are innocent of serious terrorism-related charges. "Dadashbeyli founded an Islamic group called Nima in 2005 which his family says promoted a "European style of Islam"," said Forum 18. It also promoted "mutual respect and unity between Shias, the largest Muslim group in Azerbaijan and Sunnis" as well as "rejecting fundamentalism," the group added.
Analysts have linked the reported crackdown President Ilham Aliyev’s apparent mistrust towards independent religious and political groups. The opposition continues to have strong doubts about Ilham Aliyev’s reported promises of democracy.
These were reinforced when police used force to break up opposition demonstrations in Baku in the run-up to and following November 2005 parliamentary elections in which the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) won over half of the seats. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Council of Europe observers have said the vote did not meet international standards.
