The latest cases in Oskemen bring to 40 the number of individuals known to have faced criminal charges of Tablighi Jamaat membership since December 2014, of whom 19 received prison terms.
Source/Credit: Forum 18 News Service
By Felix Corley | September 7, 2016
In a secret police initiated case, nine Sunni Muslims are due on trial in Oskemen on 14 September accused of membership of the banned Tablighi Jamaat Muslim missionary movement [with international headquarters based in Pakistan].
Arrested in early August, Baurzhan Beisembai faces up to six years' imprisonment if convicted.
The criminal trial of nine more alleged members of the Muslim missionary movement Tablighi Jamaat is due to begin in Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk) in East Kazakhstan Region on the morning of 14 September, officials have told Forum 18. One of the nine, Baurzhan Beisembai, was arrested on 1 August and is in pre-trial imprisonment. The other eight are awaiting trial at home after pledging not to leave the city. If convicted of organising the activity of a banned organisation, Beisembai faces a fine or up to six years' imprisonment. The other eight each face a fine or up to two years' imprisonment.
The latest cases in Oskemen bring to 40 the number of individuals known to have faced criminal charges of Tablighi Jamaat membership since December 2014, of whom 19 received prison terms. All the cases – as well as that of Seventh-day Adventist prisoner of conscience Yklas Kabduakasov – were initiated by the KNB secret police.
Yet another of the Sunni Muslim men convicted as Tablighi Jamaat adherents – Murat Takaumov – was added to the Finance Ministry Financial Monitoring Committee List of individuals "connected with the financing of terrorism or extremism", thus blocking all his bank accounts. The move came a week after he was freed at the end of his nine-month prison term.
The addition of Takaumov to the Financial Monitoring blacklist brought to 30 the number of individuals convicted for exercising freedom of religion or belief on the List. Of these, 29 are Sunni Muslims accused of Tablighi Jamaat membership, while the other is the Adventist prisoner of conscience Kabduakasov.
And another of the imprisoned Tablighi Jamaat adherents – Saken Tulbayev – has failed to overturn his conviction in the Supreme Court. The Court overturned only a ban on exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief for three years after Tulbayev completes his prison term. However, the court instead imposed a ban on any sharing of faith after his release.
An Astana court banned Tablighi Jamaat in Kazakhstan as "extremist" in February 2013. Until the movement was banned, it used to send members on short-term missions to other towns and villages where they slept in mosques and addressed local Muslims, both door to door and in the mosque, a close observer of the movement in Central Asia told Forum 18. Male adherents are often identified by their beards and wearing of South Asian clothing. If Muslims are thought by the authorities to agree with some of Tablighi Jamaat's teachings or practices, possess religious books often used in the movement, or meet others close to the movement, this can be enough to trigger a criminal prosecution.
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Note: The banned organization's name appeared as Tabligh Jamaat in the original article. It has been corrected to reflect the true name, Tablighi Jamaat.
Read original post here: Kazakhstan: Mass trial of banned Tablighi Jamaat Muslims in Oskemen
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