Keston News Service summary: Azerbaijan & Russia
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Subject: Keston News Service summary: Azerbaijan & Russia
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Keston News Service summary: Azerbaijan & Russia
KESTON INSTITUTE, OXFORD, UK
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KESTON NEWS SERVICE – SUMMARY
1-5 April 2002
Summaries of recent reporting on violations of religious liberty and
on religion in communist and post-communist lands.
______________________________________
AZERBAIJAN: POLICE ORDER PROTESTANT'S DEPORTATION (1 April). On the
day Baku's Protestant Greater Grace church was celebrating Easter,
police in the city's central Sabail district tried to forcibly deport
a church member, alleging that she had been conducting religious
"propaganda". One of the church's pastors, Musfig Bayram, told Keston
News Service from Baku that police took Nina Koptseva, a Russian
citizen who has a residence permit to live in Baku, to the city's
railway station on Sunday morning (31 March), bought her a ticket to
the Russian border and tried to place her on the train without any
court decision. It was only when she screamed loudly and insisted that
if she had to leave she could buy an airline ticket to Russia herself
that police halted the attempt and returned her to the cells in the
Sabail district police station. Koptseva is now slated for deportation
today (1 April) by air. Three other church members face fines. (see
full article below)
AZERBAIJAN: PROTESTANT DEPORTED (5 Apr). Nina Koptseva, a Russian
living in Baku by invitation of the Greater Grace Protestant Church
was forcibly deported from Azerbaijan on Monday 1 April, one of the
church’s pastors has told Keston News Service. She was taken to the
airport and put on a plane to her home city of Moscow, having paid for
the ticket herself. Police had attempted to deport her on Saturday
(see KNS 1 April 2002). Two other women accused with Koptseva of
“distributing religious propaganda” have not yet paid the fines
imposed on them, while the pastor who accompanied her to the police
station, and was then charged himself, will appeal against the fine.
RUSSIA: WORK IN PROGRESS ON RELIGION LAW AMENDMENTS LEAKED (2 Apr). On
19 March Articles 1-16 of work in progress on amendments to Russia's
1997 religious law were published on an internet site maintained by
the Institute for State-Confessional Relations and Law (ISCRL) in
cooperation with the religious faculty of the Russian Academy for
State Service (RASS) and the Moscow City Department of Justice. The
amendments are currently being drafted by a working group attached to
the Russian government's Commission for Religious Associations. As
published on the website (www.state-religion.ru) alterations would
affect centralised religious organisations and their registration, and
clarify the status and rights of religious associations. The text of
the amendments will be "reworked 100 times" before being submitted for
consideration, a member of the working group told Keston News Service.
RUSSIA: LOCAL BAPTIST MISSIONARY HARASSED (2 Apr). The local police, a
headteacher and Orthodox leader in a small Siberian settlement are
restricting the missionary activity of a Russian Baptist, the Council
of Churches of the Evangelical-Christian Baptists reports, in a
statement received by Keston News Service. Dmitry Mannikov moved to
the Siberian region of Khanty-Mansiisk, last year, aiming to
evangelise the ethnic Khanty population in the settlement of Ugut. In
recent weeks he has been repeatedly called in to the local police
department for questioning, but officers have refused to say why he is
being charged.
The regional administration's leading specialist on interconfessional
relations told Keston that no charge has been brought and that this
"misunderstanding between individual citizens" has been resolved.
RUSSIA: SECOND DRAFT LAW ON RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM (3 Apr). A draft law
outlawing "propaganda of religious extremism" has been drawn up by the
chairman of the Russian parliament's Committee for Religious and
Social Organisations, Communist Party deputy Viktor Zorkaltsev. Its
six articles consist mainly of definitions of general extremist
activity. While affirming the right to freedom of conscience and
creed, the draft seeks to provide “spiritual security” for the state
and prevent “the dissemination of ideas of religious extremism in any
form”.
RUSSIA: THREE DRAFT LAWS AFFECTING RELIGIOUS LIFE YET TO REACH
PARLIAMENT (3 Apr). “To lose the battle for hearts and minds in the
modern world is a defeat far more serious than a military or strategic
loss,” the author of the draft law outlawing “propaganda of religious
extremism” remarked recently. Representatives of the security organs
and the interior ministry will be asked to advise on whether this
draft should be put before parliament, or the Criminal Code amended
instead, Keston News Service has learned. The vice chairman of the
Russian government's Commission for Religious Associations, asked for
his view on the draft, commented that religious extremism should not
be treated differently in law from other forms of extremism. Another
draft law against extremist activity in general, drawn up by the
Ministry of Justice, is “still at the drafting stage”. The
controversial draft law "On Traditional Religious Organisations" is
likely to be submitted to parliament in May.
Monday 1 April
AZERBAIJAN: POLICE ORDER PROTESTANT'S
DEPORTATION
by Felix Corley, Keston News Service
On the day Baku's Protestant Greater Grace church was celebrating
Easter, police in the city's central Sabail district tried to forcibly
deport a church member, alleging that she had been conducting
religious "propaganda". One of the church's pastors, Musfig Bayram,
told Keston News Service from Baku that police took Nina Koptseva, a
Russian citizen who has a residence permit to live in Baku, to the
city's railway station on Sunday morning (31 March), bought her a
ticket to the Russian border and tried to place her on the train
without any court decision. It was only when she screamed loudly and
insisted that if she had to leave she could buy an airline ticket to
Russia herself that police halted the attempt and returned her to the
cells in the Sabail district police station. Koptseva is now slated
for deportation today (1 April) by air.
Koptseva's deportation certificate, signed by Sabail's police chief
Hasan Abdullaev, declared that she was being punished under Article
300 of the Administrative Code, which prescribes deportation for
foreign citizens caught conducting religious "propaganda" as well as
the possibility of a fine. Koptseva has not been fined.
Greater Grace members vigorously deny that Koptseva had engaged in
such propaganda. "We had held our regular Saturday evangelism meeting
near McDonalds in Fountain Square," Pastor Bayram told Keston. "But
that had already finished and Nina and three other ladies were simply
talking among themselves when they were detained by the police."
The four were taken to the 9th police station of Sabail district. The
three other women were released at 7 pm, after eight hours' detention,
but Koptseva was only freed at 11 pm after she had surrendered her
Russian passport. It was after she returned to the police station on
Sunday morning that the attempt was made to deport her by train.
During her detention on Saturday, Koptseva signed a statement drawn up
by police in Azeri (a language she does not understand), in which she
confessed to having distributed Christian literature. It remains
unclear why she signed a statement in a language she did not
understand and whose content she was unable to read.
Once back at the police station, church pastor Marat Akhmerov arrived
to try to resolve the issue. But he too was detained, being threatened
by police investigators Emil (last name unknown) and Behbud (last name
unknown) with a thirty day prison term for "refusing to submit to
authority" under Article 310 of the Administrative Code.
Koptseva spoke on 31 March by telephone to the Russian consul in Baku,
who said she should write a complaint if she felt the authorities had
treated her wrongly. The consul also spoke to the investigator, who
afterwards alleged to Koptseva that the consul had said he could do as
he liked with her.
Keston spoke by telephone on 31 March to Abdullaev, but he declined to
discuss the case and referred Keston to another number in the police
station, but that went unanswered.
Koptseva and Akhmerov were held overnight on Sunday night, and on
Monday morning Pastor Akhmerov was taken to court and fined 100,000
manats (20 US dollars or 15 British pounds) before being freed. He
must pay the fine within ten days or he can appeal. "Marat is thinking
about appealing against this fine, but he did not sleep all last night
so he is going home to get some rest," Pastor Bayram reported.
Pastor Bayram believes that National Security officers and officials
from the procuracy may also have been involved in interrogating the
five church members. "None of the officers identified themselves or
showed their identity documents, but they behaved as if they had
authority. They came into rooms without knocking and did not ask
permission of the
police officers."
Police have demanded money from two of the women detained with
Koptseva, allegedly for having broken the religion law: one has been
asked for 55,000 manats, while the other - whose identity document is
still with the police - has been asked for 110,000 manats. It is
unclear if these are fines or demands for bribes, as no certificates
of fines have been issued. One of the women was crying, as she did not
want her sick mother to find out she had been detained by the police.
Koptseva, who is originally from Moscow, runs a small home in Baku for
young women who had formerly been in institutions. It remains unclear
what will happen to these women. (END)
Copyright (c) 2002 Keston Institute. All rights reserved.
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