TURKMENISTAN: 24th conscientious objector jailed since 2018

[Isabella]

A court in Mary Region jailed 18-year-old Myrat Orazgeldiyev for one year on 3 September, the 24th Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector to military service to be imprisoned since January 2018. Eleven – including Orazgeldiyev – are now jailed, eight of them at the harsh Seydi Labour Camp, where a former prisoner of conscience described conditions as "inhuman". All 24 young men offered to do an alternative civilian service, but none exists.

A court in Mary Region of eastern Turkmenistan handed down a one-year jail term to 18-year-old Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector to military service Myrat Orazgeldiyev on 3 September. He had told the Military Conscription Office he was ready to do an alternative civilian service, but Turkmenistan has rejected repeated United Nations calls to introduce such a service. He is appealing against his conviction to Mary Regional Court.
 

 

Myrat Orazgeldiyev

Jehovah's Witnesses

Orazgeldiyev's jailing brings to five the number of conscientious objectors to military service, all Jehovah's Witnesses, known to have been imprisoned so far in 2020. It also brings to 24 the number of known criminal convictions and jailings for conscientious objection since January 2018 (see below).

Jehovah's Witnesses are conscientious objectors to military service and do not undertake any kind of activity supporting any country's military. But they are willing to undertake an alternative, totally civilian form of service, as is the right of all conscientious objectors to military service under international human rights law.

The sentences handed down to Orazgeldiyev brings to 11 the number of conscientious objectors to compulsory military service known - as of 11 September 2020 - to be serving sentences. All of them are Jehovah's Witnesses. Three of them are serving second sentences (see full list below).

On 1 September, Dashoguz Regional Court rejected the appeals by two brothers – 26-year-old Sanjarbek Saburov and 21-year-old brother Eldor Saburov – against their two-year jail sentences for refusing compulsory military service on grounds of conscience, handed down on 6 August (see below).

Including Eziz Dovletmuradovich Atabayev (born 15 March 1998), who has been serving a jail term since 2018, 11 Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors are serving jail terms of between one and four years. Eight of them are imprisoned in Seydi Labour Camp in the eastern Lebap Region, and the two Saburov brothers and Orazgeldiyev are expected to be transferred to the same labour camp (see full list below).

Turkmenistan has ignored repeated international calls, for example by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, to introduce a genuine civilian alternative to compulsory military service, to stop prosecuting and punishing conscientious objectors, and to compensate those it has punished.

http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2600

[Isabella]

A court in Turkmenistan has sentenced a Jehovah's Witness to one year in prison for his objection to military service.

A spokesman for the religious group, Jarrod Lopes, told RFE/RL on September 8 that the Vekilbazar District Court in the southeastern region of Mary on September 3 found 18-year-old Myrat Orazgeldyev guilty of avoiding mandatory military service.

According to the group, Turkmen authorities have imprisoned 25 Jehovah’s Witnesses for their conscientious objection to military service, of whom 11 are currently in prison.

"It is a shame that Turkmenistan continues to mistreat peaceful young Christian men. Young Christians like Myrat would be happy to perform alternative service. Instead, they are thrown into prison, where they are stripped of the opportunity to support the families and community they love," Lopes said in a statement.

Lopes also cited Rachel Denber, deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch, as urging Turkmen authorities to "immediately free" Myrat Orazgeldyev "and vacate the criminal case against him."
https://www.rferl.org/a/jehovah-s-witness-jailed-in-turkmenistan-for-conscientious-objection-to-military-service/30827496.html