Turkmenistan lawyer and mother freed DASHHOWUZ, Turkmenistan—On September 20, Mrs. Oguldzhan Dzhumanazarova was freed from a women's labor camp in the northern part of the country. She was released after serving two years and 33 days of an undeserved four-year sentence. "She was taken from the camp and placed on the train, apparently to make sure she would not talk to anyone on the way home. She had not been freed on amnesty earlier this year but prematurely released conditionally after serving half of the prison sentence," says Vasili Kalin of the religious Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. She was reunited with her twelve-year-old daughter who had lived with other relatives during her custody. Prior to her arrest, Mrs. Dzhumanazarova persisted in assisting her fellow Witnesses with legally defending their freedom of worship. As a result, the authorities attempted to have her forcibly sent to a psychiatric hospital, which she managed to avoid by temporarily leaving her hometown in Seydi. Later, she was arrested on fabricated charges of bribery and the retaliatory prosecution resulted in her imprisonment beginning in July 2001. Several Jehovah's Witnesses are still imprisoned in Turkmenistan solely because of their Bible-based beliefs. Mr. Kurban Bagdatovich Zakirov has been imprisoned since 1999, and his health is deteriorating. Nikolai Viktorovich Shelekhov completed one year in prison in December 2001. Six months later, on July 2, 2002, the District Court of Ashkhabad once again sentenced Shelekhov to a year and a half in prison. At least three other Jehovah's Witnesses were recently imprisoned for conscientious objection. In recent years Jehovah's Witnesses in Turkmenistan have been taken to police stations, kept in detention for long hours, brutally beaten, threatened, and verbally abused. At least one pregnant woman reported harsh mistreatment by the police. Children and non-Witness family members have suffered verbal abuse and interrogation. Other Witnesses have lost their jobs and their homes because of their faith. Only two religions are legally recognized and registered in Turkmenistan, Sunni Islam and the Russian Orthodox Church. Repeated attempts of Jehovah's Witnesses to obtain registration have been unsuccessful, and their adherents have been subjected to severe persecution and discrimination at the hands of the authorities. Turkmen Jehovah's Witnesses are completely denied freedom of association and peaceful assembly, even in their own homes. The Office of General Counsel of Jehovah's Witnesses wrote a letter to President Saparmurat A. Niyazov, calling on him to release Kurban Zakirov. Read comments in "TURKMENISTAN: Even harsher controls on religion?" by Forum 18 News Service Contact: J. R. Brown, telephone:
|
Printable Version
  |
|
| More on Turkmenistan |
|
| View by Country |
|
Japan Kazakhstan South Korea Taiwan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan |