Azerbaijan 2003 -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 10/16/2008
Last Visited: 6/14/2006
Najaf Allaverdiev (Ibrahimoglu's brother) and Seymur Rashidov have been summoned in writing to appear at their local police stations tomorrow (10 December), where they fear they might be arrested, as happened to Ibrahimoglu.
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Committee members maintain that the authorities have found nothing to use against Ibrahimoglu, and so are hoping to fabricate evidence of terrorism against him by extracting confessions from his associates.
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Committee members accuse the authorities of wanting to crush the group, founded on 4 December, the day after Ibrahimoglu was ordered by a Baku court into three months' pre-trial detention (see F18News 4 December 2003 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article id=203 ). "They say we are conducting anti-state activity."
Ibrahimoglu, an imam at the Juma mosque in Baku's old city and a board member of the Islam-Ittihad Society, is also a religious freedom defender.He is leading coordinator of Devamm (Centre for the Protection of Freedom of Conscience and Religion) and Secretary General of the Azerbaijani Chapter of the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA).
Allahverdiev told Forum 18 that the committee is preparing a protest against the imprisonment of Ibrahimoglu for 10 December, international human rights day.He said they will tape over their mouths and chain up their hands to symbolise the denial of freedom.
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Ibrahimoglu is one of more than one hundred opposition supporters detained in Baku's Bailov investigation prison in the wake of the rigged 15 October presidential election. brahimoglu was a vocal supporter of the Musavat (Equality) party's candidate, Isa Gambar.
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It remains unclear whether Ibrahimoglu has access to the Koran.
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The authorities tried to seize him together with Ibrahimoglu when they raided the Juma mosque on 17 October during Friday prayers (see F18News 22 October 2003 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article id=168 ).
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"We applied to the Ministry of Justice six months ago but as usual it provides us with no reply," secretary-general Ilgar Ibrahimoglu told Forum 18 News Service from the capital Baku on 9 May.He said he and his colleagues intend to consult the head office of the IRLA in the United States and "will probably" challenge the denial of registration through the courts.The head of the registration department of the justice ministry said he "couldn't remember" the IRLA chapter's application."We get many applications," Fazil Mamedov told Forum 18 from Baku on 12 May.
Ibrahimoglu noted also that the Centre for Protection of Religion and Freedom of Conscience Devamm, of which he is senior coordinator, has likewise failed to gain registration."We are very sorry that although it is already more than two years since Devamm submitted its documents to the Ministry of Justice, our centre has not yet been registered," he told Forum 18.
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"It is widely known that courts in Azerbaijan are not independent," Ibrahimoglu reported."Yet despite this - and having taken into account international public pressure - the Court nevertheless recommended to the Ministry of Justice to register Devamm."He said that after making minor adjustments to the application his organisation again submitted their application to the justice ministry."However, there has not been any result for six months," he told Forum 18 sadly.He said Devamm is again preparing a legal challenge to the refusal to register the organisation.
After initial denials, Mamedov of the justice ministry eventually admitted to Forum 18 that he did recall Devamm's original application and the subsequent legal case.However, he claimed that the court had ruled against Devamm.He said he could not remember anything about any subsequent application.
At the same time Mamedov insisted there is no ban on registering non-governmental organisations that campaign for religious rights and religious freedom."The only ban is on organisations that violate the constitution, such as those that call for the overthrow of the constitutional order or incite racial or religious hatred," he told Forum 18.He added that of the 1,500 or so registered NGOs, some 40 are human rights groups.
Without being able to recall the IRLA's or Devamm's applications for registration, Mamedov said he was unable to respond to the question of why they had not been registered.
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