Religious community reports police abuse

In the last two days, police have detained twenty-six members of Juma, a religious community, who came to the Juma mosque for prayer. About four hundred people more have lodged a complaint about police abuse. This is what imam Ilgar Ibragimoglu, leader of the Juma community, has told us. "Freedom of conscience is rudely violated in Azerbaijan and a gendarme regime is applied with regard to members of our community. Therefore, we have called on community members not to come to the Juma mosque for prayer until the situation is different," he remarked. The community has applied to court in connection with the violation of the rights of believers and it is going to proceed with its struggle according to the law, Ibragimoglu said.

In the meanwhile, a monitoring group of human rights organizations has condemned the actions of the authorities with regard to the Juma religious community. In a statement, the human rights advocates call the eviction of the community from the mosque of the same name "illegal." The human rights advocates consider the arrests of members of the religious community, ten women among them, in the last two days "a continuation of former repressions" against the Juma community. The statement also mentions that "constant police violence testifies to the strengthening of a police regime in the country and a serious threat to democracy and human rights." The human rights advocates call on the government for "fulfilling undertaken commitments, respecting human rights, restoring the downtrodden rights of the Juma religious community and releasing all those detained."