Church warned not to meet without state permission

SUMGAIT, Azerbaijan — After a police raid in Azerbaijan’s port city of Sumgait in mid-June, a judge gave the leader of a Baptist church, Pastor Pavel Byakov, a verbal warning not to meet for worship without state permission.

The judge also warned that for a second “offence” Byakov will be fined, said church members who asked not to be named for fear of state reprisals. A large quantity of literature confiscated in the raid has been given to the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations to decide whether the material is legal.

Prolonged delays in dealing with applications for legal status still continue, over one-and-a-half years after the deadline for processing applications. In defiance of Azerbaijan’s international human rights commitments, unregistered religious activity is illegal. Two religious communities — Cathedral of Praise Protestant Church and Baku’s Jehovah’s Witness community — have challenged the state committee’s failure to re-register them through the courts, and Cathedral of Praise gained a court ruling July 27 that they should be re-registered.