For Immediate Release
May 28, 2001

Kazakhstan prosecutor seeks to ban religious freedom

TARAZ, KAZAKHSTAN—A trial aimed at banning Jehovah's Witnesses in Taraz, Kazakhstan, was scheduled to resume on May 21, 2001, in the City Court. The trial began on February 9, 2001, but was suspended on February 22, pending a review of the religious literature of Jehovah's Witnesses by the Council of Religious Affairs, which is composed of Orthodox and Muslim leaders.

On May 7, 2001, the Zhambilsky Regional Court upheld an appeal against the judge's decision for the review. The court accepted the argument that the prosecutor's office only resorted to an expert study because of a lack of evidence to support that office's allegations of illegal activity by the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses. In reaching its decision, the panel of judges referred to a previous ruling by the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan that the literature and activities of Jehovah's Witnesses neither instigated subversion nor endangered the rights or health of citizens.

The charges to ban the group that were brought in this case are similar to accusations raised by a Moscow prosecutor, which were dismissed by the judge 36 days after the resumption of the trial and following evidence from 13 experts.

Jehovah's Witnesses were legally registered in Kazakhstan on January 22, 1997. International observers have voiced concern at recent draft amendments to the religion law, which would severely limit religious freedom. On March 15, 2001, in an address to the United States House of Representatives, the Hon. Joseph R. Pitts of Pennsylvania concluded that "if these draft amendments to the religion law are passed, the effect could be to make only Islam and Russian Orthodoxy the permitted religions in Kazakhstan. Other faiths and religious organizations would be severely restricted if not actually outlawed."

The current move to ban religious freedom is reminiscent of the court trials and deportations during the Stalin era, which resulted in many of Jehovah's Witnesses from the Ukraine and Moldova being exiled to Siberia. A number of exiled Witnesses were permitted to settle in Kazakhstan to join those who had been there since 1940. Currently, there are 33,000 Witnesses and associates in Kazakhstan.

Contact in Russia: Aleksei Nazarychev, Mobile Telephone: + (7) 902 682 8209
Contact in United States: J. R. Brown, telephone: (718) 560-5600