A/56/253 women fired from their place of work have been fully reinstated and the negative comments made in the work records have been officially expunged. “Furthermore, the Government officially registered Jehovah’s Witnesses in January 2000 and has made attempts to ensure that they can carry out their worship without hindrance. Aside from minor irregularities with the importation of literature, no reports of harassment or hindrance of their religion of any kind have been reported since registration.” 31. The Special Rapporteur thanks Azerbaijan for its response which is evidence of the continuing progress of religious freedom in that country. Egypt 32. Further to the information in its reply to a communication from the Special Rapporteur (paras. 30 to 32), Egypt has provided the following explanations: “On 31 March 1999 a Christian merchant and a Muslim became involved in an ordinary argument concerning a trade dispute in the market of the village of Al-Kosheh. “The argument degenerated and some premises and traders’ stalls were destroyed; shots were exchanged killing 21 people, 20 of them Christians and one Muslim, and 50 wounded, 27 of them Christians and 23 Muslims. “Ninety-six defendants were brought to trial. In December 2000, 92 defendants were found innocent and the four others were sentenced to terms of imprisonment of between 1 and 10 years. The grounds for the court’s decision in this case were as follows: “(a) The indictment did not include any incontrovertible evidence that any of the defendants who were cleared had committed the crimes of which they were accused, either in an isolated action or during an illegal assembly; “(b) The names of many defendants had been given by victims who were witnesses for the prosecution, without any argument of fact or law; this destroyed the probative value of their testimony which was therefore rejected by the Prosecutor’s office; “(c) None of the defendants had been arrested during or following the commission of the criminal acts of which they were accused, despite the presence of a large number of police officers at the time when the incidents took place; “(d) None of the implements or weapons used during the incidents, and none of the merchandise stolen on that occasion, was found at the home of any of the defendants; “(e) The accusations were based merely on suppositions or assumptions; “(f) The accusations were overstated to the point of being contrary to reason and logic; “(g) The sums reported under the heading of damage and theft were exaggerated or submitted unjustifiably late; 72