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 Becket Fund asks European Court of Human Rights to protect Azeri Muslim congregationMar 3, 2005 Religious leader violently targeted for his pro-democracy advocacy
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed a formal application with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) charging that the Government of the Azerbaijan Republic has denied the Juma Mosque Congregation their rights as secured by the European Convention. The congregation has been violently removed from the cathedral mosque of Baku.
“The Soviet Union may no longer rule Azerbaijan, but the government there is still using Soviet-style tactics to silence dissent,” declared Becket Fund Attorney Eric Rassbach.
The congregation and its leader “have been subjected to a concerted governmental campaign of human rights abuses,” The Becket Fund’s application states. “Specifically, the Government of the Azerbaijan Republic has denied them their rights to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly, their property rights, their right to physical liberty, and their right to be free from inhumane treatment.” Azerbaijan ratified the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in April 2002.
The Becket Fund—an international, interfaith, public-interest law firm that protects the free expression of all religious traditions—has been fighting to protect the basic rights of this congregation for over a year. The Becket Fund is a Non-Governmental Organization with consultative status with the United Nations.
Imam Ilgar Ibrahimoglu Allahverdiev is an outspoken advocate for democracy, human rights, non-violence and religious freedom in Azerbaijan. “The state authorities began to target Imam Allahverdiev in 2002-2003, when his human rights advocacy and independence led him to criticise some of the Government’s more repressive activities,” The Becket Fund’s application states. Imam Allahverdiev has been detained several times, including one four-month stint in Baku’s notorious Bayil prison, and the government has tried to intimidate members of the congregation by imprisoning them as well.
In July 2004, the Azeri government closed the mosque, erecting a steel fence around it and claiming it was under “repair.” The congregation began meeting in private homes, and that same month, police raided a house while the group was in prayer after a funeral service. Congregation members have been beaten during some of these raids. The group refuses to join the state-created Muslim hierarchy, which was founded by Stalin and continues to this day for the purpose of controlling religious thought and practice in Azerbaijan.
“In sum, what was a vibrant religious community dedicated to peaceful worship, the protection of human rights, and non-violence, has been completely eliminated by the state authorities,” The Becket Fund concludes in the letter. “The gains made since the fall of the Soviet Union have been completely rolled back, and human rights—the sanctity of the person, the right to speak, the right to hold religious beliefs and publicly manifest those religious beliefs—have been eliminated for the Congregation and Imam Allahverdiev in Azerbaijan.”
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