Azerbaijan Pastor's prison sentence stuns congregation*

Appeals court spends 2 minutes affirming 2 years in work camp

Posted: October 5, 2007
Voice of the Martyrs

An appeals court has spent two minutes affirming a two-year work camp
sentence for a Baptist pastor who was holding Christian church services,
a case on which Voice of the Martyrs, the worldwide ministry to
persecuted Christians, has reported.

The pastor, Zaur Balaev, had been in custody in Azerbaijan since his
arrest in May. He was convicted in August under the national criminal
code that punishes the threat of violence against a "state
representative" carrying out his or her duties, and sentenced to prison.

Because the accusations were so outrageous – one pastor attacking five
police officers – supporters had hoped for a positive result at the
appeals court level, even though they didn't expect a complete
exoneration because that would have been incriminating to the police
officers who testified against him.

However, the pastor's supporters were surprised by the appellate court
affirmation of the two-year sentence, which likely will be served in
some unknown work camp.

"We're stunned at the result the court handed down," Ilya Zenchenko, the
head of the Baptist Union, told Forum 18 New Service, according to
documentation from ASSIST News Service. "We don't know what to do. It is
a tragedy for his wife and children."

Zenchenko said he had been allowed to speak briefly in the hearing on
the appeal, but the verdict followed immediately.

"It was all over in two minutes," he told Forum 18.

The pastor had been targeted for his activities, along with his
congregation, in his village of Aliabad near Zakatala. Other Baptists in
the village also have been targeted by authorities, who in Azerbaijan
require that church groups be licensed by the state in order to operate.

They then can control church activities by denying licensing to groups
they don't like.

"Zaur's son is very distressed, complaining that there is no hope and no
law in Azerbaijan," Zenchenko told Forum 18. "He is young but his
emotional reaction is understandable."

The pastor's wife and two children met with him briefly, and gave him
warm clothes for the oncoming winter.

An appeal is being prepared to the nation's Supreme Court, or even the
European Court of Human Rights if needed, officials said.

Forum 18 reported that no officials for the state or prosecution would
discuss the case with them.

Balaev, 44, had been leading his Baptist congregation in the northwest
corner of Azerbaijan near Georgia, but repeatedly was refused in his
applications for legal status, a situation that led to harassment from
local authorities for not having that permission, supporters told Forum 18.

He had been arrested May 20 during what police said was an "illegal"
worship service. He then was accused of attacking five police officers.

Zenchenko said he told the court the church teaches members not to
resist with violence, and Balaev's father, who witnessed the raid, told
the judicial officials it was the police who used violence.

With Balaev in prison, police in Aliabad have been harassing the leader
of another Baptist congregation, led by Nvoruz Eyvazov, according to
Forum 18. Homes of several members have been searched by police, and
religious literature was confiscated.

VOM is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to
help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the
world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville,
Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.

It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started
smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before
Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for
his refusal to recant Christianity.

He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about
the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security
Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound
scars on his body.