27 September 2019

Felix Corley, Forum 18

A Baku court fined Kamran Huseynzade four months' average wages for selling religious books outside a mosque without state permission. The head of the censorship department at the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations lamented that only 42 of 100 places selling religious literature have the required state licence. All published and imported religious literature is subject to prior compulsory censorship.

AZERBAIJAN: Censorship case to join 51 other ECtHR cases? After failing in the Supreme Court to overturn a state ban on his book on Islam, Elshad Miri is preparing a case to the European Court of Human Rights. It would join 51 existing cases at the Strasbourg court (involving 86 individuals and 7 communities) over Azerbaijan's repeated freedom of religion or belief violations.

AZERBAIJAN: Appeal court upholds couple's massive fines Shirvan Appeal Court rejected the appeals by a Baptist husband and wife against fines of more than three months' average wages each for having religious literature and holding a New Year children's meeting without state permission. Three Protestants were fined for a study meeting in a Sheki home. A Muslim in Sheki failed to overturn a fine for teaching Islam.