{"id":2900,"date":"2017-05-18T08:22:10","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T05:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2017\/05\/18\/kazakhstan-imprisons-ailing-jehovahs-witness-and-bans-his-worship\/"},"modified":"2022-12-19T21:36:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T18:36:41","slug":"kazakhstan-imprisons-ailing-jehovahs-witness-and-bans-his-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/kazakhstan-imprisons-ailing-jehovahs-witness-and-bans-his-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"Kazakhstan Imprisons Ailing Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witness and Bans His Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALMATY, Kazakhstan\u00e2\u20ac\u201dOn May\u00c2\u00a02, 2017, a court in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, sentenced Teymur Akhmedov to a five-year prison sentence for performing his peaceful Bible education work, characterized by the court as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inciting religious discord\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153advocating [religious] superiority.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In addition to the prison term, the judge also imposed a three-year ban on Mr.\u00c2\u00a0Akhmedov\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s participation in Bible education activities. The decision places Mr.\u00c2\u00a0Akhmedov, 61, husband and father of three sons, in an especially precarious situation because he requires treatment for a bleeding tumor and has been denied the medical attention that he requires. Mr.\u00c2\u00a0Akhmedov will appeal the court\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision. The appeal is likely to be heard later in May or early June.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The decision is the latest disturbing development in a legal drama that began January\u00c2\u00a018, 2017, when Kazakhstan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National Security Committee arrested and charged Mr.\u00c2\u00a0Akhmedov under the controversial Article 174(2) of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan. Mr.\u00c2\u00a0Akhmedov was then held in detention for months and denied medical treatment. David\u00c2\u00a0A. Semonian, a spokesman at the Witnesses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 world headquarters, states: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses around the world are deeply concerned over Teymur\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s welfare. We hope that the authorities will dismiss these unwarranted charges and finally allow this loyal, law-abiding Christian to be reunited with his family and receive the medical care he urgently requires.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses view the actions of the Astana court as evidence that Kazakhstan is following the pattern of religious persecution set by Russia, particularly the\u00c2\u00a0recent decision of the Supreme Court<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0of the Russian Federation to liquidate the Administrative Center of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia. Mr.\u00c2\u00a0Semonian explains: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153As was the case with our worship in Russia, Teymur Akhmedov is a victim of a law ostensibly designed to guard against terrorism that is being misapplied to our worship. International bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, have called on Kazakhstan to stop misusing such laws to persecute peaceful worship.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He concludes: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our concern extends to all of our fellow worshippers in Kazakhstan, whom we hope will no longer be harassed for carrying out their Bible education work, which is known to help communities around the world. We will all be following this case closely.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Media Contacts:<\/em><\/p>\n

International: David\u00c2\u00a0A. Semonian, Office of Public Information, +1-845-524-3000<\/em><\/p>\n

Kazakhstan: Bekzat Smagulov, +7-747-671-45-01<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.jw.org\/en\/news\/releases\/by-region\/kazakhstan\/imprisons-ailing-jehovahs-witness-bans-his-worship\/\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALMATY, Kazakhstan\u00e2\u20ac\u201dOn May\u00c2\u00a02, 2017, a court in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, sentenced Teymur Akhmedov to a five-year prison sentence for performing his peaceful Bible education work, characterized by the court as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153inciting religious discord\u00e2\u20ac\u009d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-news","category-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5741,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2900\/revisions\/5741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}