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October 25, 2002
Prosecutor fails to appear in trial of Jehovah’s Witness in Uzbekistan
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan—On October 24, 2002, Prosecutor Rahkimov delayed the criminal prosecution of 26-year-old Marat Mudarisov by failing to appear in the Akmal Ikramovskiy Court. Mudarisov, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, is being tried on criminal charges for his religious beliefs and faces a sentence of up to five years in prison if convicted. He has been sitting in pretrial detention since his arrest on July 19, 2002. When the prosecutor did not appear, Judge Usmanov postponed the hearing until Tuesday, October 29, at 10:00 a.m.
“I understand it was difficult for the judge,” stated Arli Chimirov, a Moscow lawyer approved by the Court to assist in the defense. “But it is far more difficult for my client Mudarisov. He has been incarcerated in a prison now for more than three months.”
Although the government in two smaller cities has registered communities of Jehovah’s Witnesses, authorities in the capital, Tashkent, have systematically refused to grant Witness residents their basic religious freedoms. In the case of Mudarisov, he was allegedly threatened by police and arrested. He was sent to trial when he refused to renounce his religious beliefs.
Contact: J. R. Brown, telephone: (718) 560-5600