Jehovah’s Witnesses

For Immediate Release
April 23, 2010

Religious meeting raided in Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh—At 8:00 p.m. on March 30, 2010, local officials raided a peaceful religious meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses who had gathered for the annual commemoration of the death of Jesus Christ. The officials refused to let the religious meeting continue. Two of the men in attendance were taken to the police station, where they were interrogated, fingerprinted, and held until almost midnight. The officials claimed it was illegal for Jehovah’s Witnesses to meet together because they currently do not have official religious registration from the State Registry Department.

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nagorno-Karabakh had applied for religious registration on July 9, 2009. Although the application was dismissed, the trial court confirmed that, even without religious registration, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nagorno-Karabakh continue to have the guaranteed right under domestic and international law to meet together freely and to discuss their religious convictions with interested persons.

This illegal police raid and similar ones recently carried out show a shocking disregard for the guaranteed right to freedom of religion and freedom of religious assembly. Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nagorno-Karabakh and throughout the world call on senior government officials to end the campaign of religious persecution that is being carried out by local officials.

Contact in Europe: European Association of Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses
Telephone: +32 2-782-0015

Contact United States: J. R. Brown, Office of Public Information
Telephone: (718) 560-5600