Jehovah's Witness faces hate charges in Kazakhstan
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 27 March 2017 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Jehovah's Witness faces hate charges in Kazakhstan, 27 March 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5975a6c211.html [accessed 17 September 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
March 27, 2017
Jehovah's Witness adherent Teimur Akhmedov (left) and his lawyers Nataly Kononenko (center) and Vitaly Kuznetsov in an Astana courtroom on March 27.
ASTANA – Preliminary hearings were held in the trial of a Jehovah's Witness charged with inciting interethnic enmity on March 27 in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana.
Teimur Akhmedov, 60, was arrested in January for what the Committee for National Security (KNB) said propagating ideas that "disrupt interreligious and interethnic concord" in the country.
Akhmedov pleaded not guilty.
His lawyers, Natalya Kononenko and Vitaly Kuznetsov, requested that the judge release their client while the trial is held because he is undergoing treatment for cancer.
The judge rejected the motion and scheduled the trial to begin on April 6.
If found guilty, Akhmedov faces up to 10 years in prison.
In 2015, a court in Astana sentenced an active member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Yqylas Qabduaqasov, to seven years of restricted freedom, which is similar to a suspended sentence with parole-like restrictions. But a higher court toughened the punishment that December, sentencing him to two years in prison.
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