PROTESTANTS COMPLAIN OF RELIGIOUS HARASSMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAKU 000794 SIPDIS SIPDIS FOR EUR/CARC E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/25/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KIRF AJ SUBJECT: PROTESTANTS COMPLAIN OF RELIGIOUS HARASSMENT Classified By: Pol/Econ Chief Joan Polaschik for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d ). ¶1. (C) Summary: Police in the small northwestern village of Aliabad detained and arrested Baptist Pastor Zaur Balaev on May 20. Representatives from the local Baptist community claim authorities violated their religious freedoms and that they are being singled out for persecution. The State Committee on Work with Religious Associations (SCWRA) defends local officials' decision to arrest Balaev, claiming he resisted the police. Representatives from other evangelical Protestant communities have also reported that the GOAJ selectively harasses their communities. We continue to engage with the SCWRA when this type of incident occurs, as part of our ongoing dialogue on the importance of religious tolerance within Azerbaijan. End Summary. Arrest of Baptist Pastor -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Azerbaijani Baptists have met with emboffs several times to discuss the May 20 arrest of Baptist pastor Zaur Balaev in Aliabad. According to Baku-based Baptist leader Ilya Zenchenko, police raided a Baptist worship service in Aliabad on May 20. Zenchenko said the police claimed they had a court order to break up the unregistered religious community, but the authorities refused to show it to the congregation. Zenchenko, Selminaz Balaev (the pastor's wife),and several Aliabad Baptist Church members told us Balaev willingly went to the local police station after the authorities asked him to come to the station. Hidayat Orujov, head of the State Committee on Work with Religious Associations (SCWRA),told us in a June 11 meeting that Balaev refused to go to the police station and was arrested for resisting the police, a claim also made by local authorities. The government also said that Balaev's community had illegally constructed a facility in Aliabad. Balaev currently is imprisoned in Ganja, and he will likely be tried for resisting arrest. ¶3. (SBU) Zenchenko and Selminaz Balaev have highlighted several other legal abuses in addition to the disputed circumstances surrounding Balaev's arrest. First, they said that Balaev was held incommunicado for several days after his May 20 arrest. Selminaz Balaev claimed that local police asked for a $200 bribe in order for her to meet with her husband. Second, they said that Aliabad police and authorities repeatedly insulted and denigrated them on religious grounds. Third, Selminaz Balaev claimed police illegally held her passport during their investigation of Zaur Balaev as a deliberate intimidation tactic. (NOTE: According to Azerbaijani law, police can hold an individual's passport if the individual is identified as a suspect and authorities notify the individual of the suspected charge. END NOTE.) ¶4. (C) Pol/Econ Chief raised Balaev,s case in a June 11 meeting with SCWRA Chief Orujov, urging the GOAJ to protect the Baptists, right to freely exercise their religious beliefs and to ensure that Balaev,s due process rights are upheld. Orujov stated that Balaev was arrested because he resisted the police and had illegally constructed a building. Orujov also noted that he had met recently met with Zenchenko and other members of the Baptist community to hear their concerns. (NOTE: Zenchenko said that Orujov was dismissive of their case. END NOTE.) We also met with MFA human rights officer Fakhraddin Ismayilov to express Embassy's concern, noting that this type of incident is not congruent with Azerbaijan's history of religious tolerance. Other Accounts of Harassment -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Several other evangelic Protestant pastors have complained that the GOAJ is selectively singling them out for harassment. Rasim Hasanov, the head of the Assemblies of God church in Baku, told us the SCWRA is creating obstacles for registering their churches in Baku and Sumgayit. Specifically, Hasanov said the SCWRA is asking for inordinate amounts of documentation to register their church and the SCWRA repeatedly has not made a timely ruling on their registration application. Rasim Khalilov, the pastor of the Cathedral of Praise, told us that local authorities have harassed members of their communities in Ganja, Lenkaran, Khudat, and Gusar. Khalilov said police have taken several members to police stations for questioning about their faith. Comment -------------- ¶6. (C) Although the GOAJ generally respects the rights of BAKU 00000794 002 OF 002 traditional religious communities that have been long-established in Azerbaijan, it takes a much harder line toward what it characterizes as "non-traditional" religions and Islamic practice that falls outside the control of the Caucasus Muslim Board's control. Protestant Evangelical communities complain that the GOAJ views them as "non-traditional" religious groups and periodically harass them. We will continue to engage GOAJ officials on the importance of religious tolerance. LU