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town of Saparmurat Turkmenbashi, in the Mary region of south-eastern Turkmenistan.
The four women were taken to the local administration, threatene d and allegedly
mocked with the aim of forcing them to abandon their religious views before they
were freed. Two further Jehovah's Witnesses, Guncha Atageldiyeva and Bakhar
Sapayeva, were reportedly summoned and similarly threatened in the following days.
371. On 12 November 2004, Ms. Bilbil Kulyyeva was forcibly evicted from the
hostel in Ashgabad where she was living with her four children. The eviction was
reportedly ordered by the religious affairs department of Ashgabad city hyakimlik.
372. On 16 November 2004, a district police officer arrested Maksat Khalyshev
while he was in the street in an outlying suburb of Ashgabad. After finding a Bible
and other religious literature on him and in the absence of a permit to live in the
capital, Khalyshev was taken to the police station. He was reportedly verbally insulted
and humiliated before he was taken to a holding centre where he was kept for 24
hours in the open air on a cold concrete floor without any covering.
373. On 26 November 2004, Murat Saryyev, originally from Dashoguz, was
summoned to the administration of Ashgabad's Kopetdag district. He was reportedly
met by a commission of nine persons in the room dedicated to the Ruhnama, a book
of President Niyazov's "spiritual" writings which has taken the place of the works of
Lenin as an object of official veneration. He was then reportedly humiliated by the
members of the commission who also allegedly threatened him that his apartment
would be confiscated and that he would be evicted from Dashoguz if he continued to
conduct meetings with his fellow believers in his apartment and to speak about the
gospel to others.
374. On 10 December 2004, Darya Meshcherina, a 20-year old Jehovah's Witness
in Ashgabad was arrested by the police after she gave a friend “My Book of Bible
Stories”. Two police officers reportedly drove her to the police station where the
content of her bag was inspected and the following items were confiscated: The
Watchtower magazine, brochures, audiocassettes, photocopied sheets of paper and a
medical identification document. Reports further indicate that she was forced to make
a written statement. Finally, on 20 December 2004, the Ashgabad's Azatlyk district
court fined her 2,500,000 manats under Article 205 of the Code of Administrative
Offences, which punishes any religious activity that has not been authorized by the
Government.
375. Finally, it has been brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur that the
Jehovah's Witnesses are among a whole range of religious communities that had failed
to obtain registration with the Government and therefore the right to conduct any
religious activity. Other such faiths effectively banned would include all Protestant
denominations apart from the Adventists and possibly the Baptists whose registration
had not reportedly been completed eight months after they were given their
registration certificate, Shia Muslims, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Catholics
(except on Vatican diplomatic territory), the Lutherans, the Jews, the Yezidis as well
as the New Apostolic Church. Besides, even for registered faiths such as the Muslims,
the Russian Orthodox, the Adventists, possibly the Baptists, the Hare Krishna
community and the Baha'is, religious activity is reportedly legal only in the few
authorised places of worship.