CABAR: JW in Tajikistan position unchanged

CABAR.asia (Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting, produced under an IWPR project) reports that persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Tajikistan continues, with followers who refuse military service on religious grounds being imprisoned. The report states that in early April, Radio Ozodi reported a military court in Dushanbe sentenced Jovidon Bobojonov, a 20-year-old Jehovah’s Witness, to two years in prison for refusing to serve in the army. The report states Bobojonov was willing to perform alternative civil service but no such provision exists in Tajik law, so those refusing mandatory military service are charged under Article 376 of the Criminal Code (“Evasion from military service by self-injury or otherwise”). The report states that in 2017, 18-year-old Daniil Islomov, also a Jehovah’s Witness, was convicted for six months for the same reason and was also denied alternative civil service. The report states the organisation was officially registered in Tajikistan in 1997, but its activities were suspended in 2008 by decision of the Dushanbe military court, and numerous attempts to challenge this have been unsuccessful. The report states that in autumn, Shamil Khakimov, a follower, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, indicted for inciting racial, national and religious hatred. The report states the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) in Dushanbe repeatedly called Jehovah’s Witnesses for interrogation and pressured them to sign “self-incriminating statements”. The report cites the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) recommending Tajikistan register Jehovah’s Witnesses and permit import of religious literature, and quotes Dilshod Juraev of the International Commission of Jurists on the right to conscientious objection under Article 18 of the ICCPR. The report states Tajikistan’s 2000 Law on Universal Military Duty and Military Service mentions alternative service but no regulating law exists; a draft prepared in 2017 by Minister of Defence Sherali Mirzo has not progressed.