Due out
of prison in Sergeyevka in North Kazakhstan Region at lunchtime tomorrow (23
April) is Denis Yenenko. The 31-year-old Baptist, who is married with three
young children, will have completed a six-day prison term – which included his
Easter. He was imprisoned to punish him for refusing to pay an earlier fine to
punish him for exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief, according
to court documents seen by Forum 18 News Service.
Yenenko
is the eighth known Council of Churches Baptist to be given a short prison term
in 2014 so far.
Council
of Churches Baptists refuse on principle to seek state permission to be able to
meet for worship. As many as 33 of the 39 known administrative fines handed
down in the first ten weeks of 2014 to punish individuals for exercising the
right to freedom of religion or belief were on their members. The oldest of
those fined, Yegor Prokopenko, was aged 87 and three months. They also have a
policy of civil disobedience, refusing to pay such fines (see F18News 13 March
2014 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1937).
Meanwhile
Jehovah’s Witness Yuri Toporov has lost his appeal against a fine and
deportation. A Russian citizen married to a Kazakh citizen, he is being
punished for addressing his own religious community without state permission to
act as a “missionary” (see below).
The
continuing administrative punishments for exercising the right to freedom of
religion or belief come as harsher punishments are being considered by
parliament in the new Code of Administrative Offences and the new Criminal
Code. Human rights defenders have sharply criticised many of their proposed
provisions (see forthcoming F18News article).
The
Kazakh government’s restrictions on this human right were harshly criticised by
the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Heiner
Bielefeldt, at the conclusion of his visit to the country. In particular, he
called for “far-reaching reforms” of the 2011 Religion Law, including
an end to the ban on unregistered religious activity (see below).
“Singing psalms” without state
registration
Trouble
began for Yenenko on 14 September 2013, when the authorities discovered he and
others were handing out Christian leaflets in Sergeyevka. The following day, on
Sunday morning, police raided worship in the family home in the town. Police
inspector Captain Zh. Sarsenov told Shal-akyn District Court on 30 October that
he received a report of an “illegal meeting” and found about eight
people, including Yenenko, “singing psalms” without state
registration.
Judge
Sekerbai Kaskarbayev fined Yenenko and fellow Baptist Sergei Lantsov – who was
also present – 50 Monthly Financial Indicators (MFIs) each, 86,550 Tenge (2,800
Norwegian Kroner, 350 Euros or 475 US Dollars). This represents about one
month’s average wages for those in work. Yenenko does not have a regular job.
Both
were punished under Administrative Code Article 374-1, Part 2. This punishes
“Participation in the activity of an unregistered, halted, or banned
religious community or social organisation”.
Yenenko
and Lantsov insisted they were innocent of any wrongdoing, but on 28 November
2013, Judge Abai Ryskaliyev of North Kazakhstan Regional Court rejected their
appeal, according to the decision seen by Forum 18. Like all Council of
Churches Baptists, Yenenko and Lantsov refused to pay what they regard as
“unjust” fines.
Second attempted punishment fails
On 26
November 2013, Shal-akyn District Court rejected an attempt to have Yenenko
also punished for distributing religious literature. On 8 November, Bolat
Omarov of North Kazakhstan Region Religious Affairs Department had drawn up a
record of an offence, seen by Forum 18, under Administrative Code Article 375,
Part 1.
Article
375, Part 1 punishes “Violation of the demands established in law for the
conducting of religious rites, ceremonies and/or meetings; carrying out of
charitable activity; the import, production, publication and/or distribution of
religious literature and other materials of religious content (designation) and
objects of religious significance; and building of places of worship and
changing the designation of buildings into places of worship”.
Judge
Abai Bulatov rejected the case as witnesses denied that they had recognised
Yenenko among those offering the literature. The Judge concluded that he had
committed no offence, according to the decision seen by Forum 18.
Six-day prison term
On 17
April 2014, Court bailiff Marat Baitelenov summoned Yenenko and handed him the
record of an administrative violation under Administrative Code Article 524 –
seen by Forum 18 – for refusing to pay the October 2013 fine. Article 524
punishes “Failure to carry out court decisions”. However, Yenenko
refused to sign the record.
Baitelenov
immediately took him to Shal-akyn District Court, where Judge Bulatov handed
down the six-day punishment. The court decision – seen by Forum 18 – notes that
Yenenko insisted that he would not pay what he regards as an unjust fine. It
also noted that District Prosecutor’s Office official Saule Kozhakhmetova had
demanded a five-day prison term. The decision recorded that the term was to run
until 12.30 (lunchtime) on 23 April.
Judge
Bulatov defended his decision to imprison Yenenko. “He is not being
punished for his faith,” he insisted to Forum 18 from the court on 22
April. “He didn’t fulfil the court decision from last October – court
decisions must be fulfilled. He hasn’t paid one kopek [penny].” Forum 18
pointed out that the original fine had been to punish him for exercising the
right to freedom of religion or belief, but Judge Bulatov dismissed this.
“We all pray to one God.”
Kozhakhmetova
similarly defended the imprisonment. “He wasn’t fined for praying to
God,” she claimed to Forum 18 from the Prosecutor’s Office on 22 April.
“No one is fined for that. He committed an offence and made no attempt to
pay the fine.”
Yenenko’s
family found out that he had been imprisoned only when the police called them
several hours after the court hearing, relatives told Forum 18 on 22 April.
Police told them they should bring clothes and food for him. Relatives said
they were able to hand on a Bible for him, and deliver food each day. He
developed strong toothache on 18 April, but only on 22 April did the police
take him to the dentist to have a tooth extracted.
Despite
repeated calls on 22 April, Forum 18 was unable to reach court bailiff Baitelenov.
His colleagues said he was out of the office.
Deportation order
Jehovah’s
Witness Toporov has failed in his attempt at Almaty City Court to overturn the
lower court decision to fine and deport him for addressing a Jehovah’s Witness
meeting. On 15 April, Judge Nurlan Kurmangaliyev rejected his appeal, according
to the decision seen by Forum 18.
“I’ll
have 30 days to leave Kazakhstan when the decision enters into legal
force,” Toporov told Forum 18 from Almaty on 22 April. He said he had
received the written decision on 21 April and today (22 April) lodged a further
appeal to Kazakhstan’s General Prosecutor’s Office. In his appeal he asked the
General Prosecutor’s Office to halt the deportation process while the appeal is
heard. He has not paid the fine.
Toporov,
a Russian citizen, has lived in Kazakhstan since 2003 and married a Kazakh
citizen in 2007. “If I fail to have the decision overturned I’ll have to
leave for Russia,” he lamented to Forum 18. “Of course I want to be
with my wife, so she’ll have to leave too.”
Addressing own community is “missionary
activity”?
Toporov
was prosecuted for addressing a meeting of Almaty’s registered Jehovah’s
Witness community on 23 November 2013, according to the 3 March 2014 decision
of Almaty’s Inter-district Specialised Administrative Court seen by Forum 18.
He was punished under Administrative Code Article 375, Part 3.
Article
375, Part 3 punishes “The carrying out of missionary activity by citizens
of the Republic of Kazakhstan, foreigners and persons without citizenship
without registration (re-registration), as well as the use by missionaries of
religious literature, informational materials of religious content or objects
of religious significance without a positive assessment of a religious studies
expert analysis”.
As a
foreigner, he needed registration as a “missionary”, Rasul Dursunov
of Almaty’s Religious Affairs Department – who had drawn up the record of an
offence – told the court.
Clarification of the law?
As part
of its preparation for the case, Almaty’s Religious Affairs Department had
written to the government’s Agency of Religious Affairs (ARA) on 19 February to
ask for its clarification of the law. The ARA response – seen by Forum 18 – was
signed by ARA Deputy Chair Yerlan Abdakasov.
The ARA
claims that “spiritual and preaching activity by foreign citizens and
people without citizenship, irrespective of their status as clergy, represents
missionary activity. Spiritual and preaching activity by clergy of local and
regional religious associations outside relevant locations similarly represents
missionary activity.”
This
interpretation of the law is highly controversial. Toporov insisted to the
court that Jehovah’s Witnesses had not granted him any status as a missionary
and that he was simply giving his personal interpretation of his faith to a
Jehovah’s Witness meeting. He insisted this was his right under Constitutional
protections of free speech and freedom of belief.
Roman
Podoprigora, an Almaty-based law professor who is also on the advisory council
of Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court, agrees. “A member of the clergy or other
individual who is conducting spiritual or preaching service in front of
fellow-believers during a religious service is definitively not a
missionary,” he told the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights
and the Rule of Law for a 21 April article on the case.
Podoprigora
insists that leading or contributing to a service differs from missionary activity.
“The very fact that people of another faith (as well as people indifferent
to religion or atheists) might be present does not turn it into missionary
activity.”
Toporov
asks whether he or anyone in his position is supposed to check whether all those
present at a religious community’s meeting are already members of that
community before they start the service.
The
Toporov decision appears to contradict an earlier decision in a similar case.
In March 2010, the Supreme Court overturned the punishments handed down to two
visiting Jehovah’s Witnesses, American Theodore Jaracz and Canadian John Kikot.
Both were detained by police and counter-terrorist police in Almaty in 2008
after giving a 30 minute “pastoral discourse” at a Jehovah’s Witness
meeting. They were both found guilty by an Almaty court under Article 375 Part
3, fined and ordered deported (see F18News 8 September 2010
http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1486).
Hidden surveillance?
Toporov
told the court that the Religious Affairs Department had brought the case after
it had viewed secretly-filmed footage of the meeting. “The authorities
must have listened in to the meeting and sent people,” he told Forum 18.
He declined to specify who might have sent such individuals.
“As
in tsarist Russia, when a police officer had to be present at every political
gathering, and as was the earlier official practice in Kazakhstan, now under a
secret command the secret police are always present, visibly or
invisibly,” Andrei Grishin of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for
Human Rights and the Rule of Law complained. “They are present at
practically all religious gatherings of representatives of ‘non-traditional’
confessions.”
The
police and National Security Committee (KNB) secret police have for some years
been monitoring and attempting to plant spies inside religious communities (see
eg. F18News 30 January 2008
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1078).
Forum 18
was unable to reach Dursunov on 22 April. A colleague at Almaty’s Religious
Affairs Department – who would not give his name – said he was out of the
office. However, the colleague insisted “no spies” are sent to
religious communities’ meetings. He also claimed that Dursunov does not
distinguish between local citizens and foreigners in religious communities in
his work.
He was
unable to explain why Toporov, who has been legally resident in Kazakhstan for
more than a decade and whose wife is Kazakh, should be fined and ordered
deported for addressing a meeting of his own religious community. He refused to
say if Toporov represents a danger to Kazakhstan and merits deportation for
that reason. He refused to say if anyone had suffered from his address to his
own religious community. “You’re misinformed about the case,” he
insisted to Forum 18.
Lawyer barred
At the
lower court hearing on 3 March, Judge Akmaral Isabayeva had barred a Canadian
lawyer Toporov had wished to defend him from doing so. The request to bar the
lawyer had come from Bostandyk Prosecutor’s Office official Aidynbek
Abdukhanov.
Forum 18
was unable to reach Abdukhanov on 22 April – his telephone went unanswered.
Fine follows raid
Among
other recent fines, Council of Churches Baptist Yevgeny Lyakhov was fined 100
MFIs, 185,200 Tenge, on 17 April. Judge Alma Mukhamedyarova of Musrepov
District Court in North Kazakhstan Region found him guilty under Administrative
Code Article 374-1, Part 1.
Article
374-1, Part 1 punishes “Leading, participating in, or financing an
unregistered, halted, or banned religious community or social
organisation”.
As often
happens, the trial was delayed because the court sent back case materials four
times because police had failed to prepare documents correctly (see F18News 13
March 2014 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1937).
The fine
followed a police raid on 19 January on the Council of Churches congregation in
the village of Ruzayevka during Sunday worship, which Lyakhov was leading. Four
officers and an official of the local Religious Affairs Department, Abu-Bakir
Karmenov, arrived and Lyakhov had to ask them not to disturb the service.
“They came into the hall and began to film all those present,” local
Baptists complained to Forum 18. After the service, police took Lyakhov to the
police station and drew up a record of an offence.
Lyakhov
“objects to the fine”, and intends to appeal against it to the
Regional Court, Baptists told Forum 18.
A
separate prosecution under Administrative Code Article 375, Part 1 was sent
back by the court on 30 January as North Kazakhstan Religious Affairs
Department failed to prepare case documents correctly.
UN criticism
UN
Special Rapporteur Bielefeldt criticised such raids and punishments in his 4
April end of visit statement issued in the capital Astana (see
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14468&LangID=E).
“A
main problem concerning the administration of religious registration is that
non-registered religious groups can hardly exercise any collective religious
functions in Kazakhstan,” he observed. “Any of their activities, even
the common performance of prayers and rituals in private homes, are deemed
illegal and can incur serious administrative sanctions.”
Bielefeldt
recounted how, during his 11–day visit, he had heard “credible stories
about police raids in the premises of some non-registered groups, leading to
confiscation of literature, computers and other property”.
Bielefeldt
also criticised the widespread punishments for “missionary activity”.
“At times, the term ‘missionary activities’ is reportedly used in such a
broad way as to almost cover all forms of bearing witness and communicating
about issues of faith,” he complained.
“According
to international standards, freedom of religion or belief unequivocally
includes the right to bear witness to one’s conviction, to communicate within
and across denominational boundaries and to try to persuade others non-coercively.
This also covers missionary activities.”
http://forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1950
SOURCE:
Forum 18
http://forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1950
