IRFN: 2 More Deaths Linked to Uzbek Prison Torture

glasses off:

1. Turkmenistan: Unregistered Religious Communities Warned Not to Meet (Nov. 21)
2. Uzbekistan: Two More Deaths Linked to Torture in Prisons (Nov. 22)

Andijan, Uzbekistan
The Associated Press reports that two men have died after being tortured in an Uzbek prison, where both were serving time for their alleged membership in Hizb-ut-Tahrir , classified as an extremist Islamic sect by the Uzbek government. Human rights activists in the country have noted that as the country prepares for the next presidential election (December 23), there has been an increase in the incidence of torture and in the targeting of devout Muslims, allegedly due to the government’s fear of a “growing threat of Islamic fundamentalism” in the country. At least six prisoners are reported to have been tortured to death in Uzbekistan’s prisons this year.

3. Egypt: Woman Jailed for “Misrepresenting” Religion (Nov. 22)

Cairo, Egypt
Agence France-Presse reports that Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, an Egyptian Christian, was sentenced to three years in jail on charges of fraud and “providing false information on official documents” for stating she was Christian on her marriage license in 1982. The charges stem from the fact that Egypt recognizes her as a Muslim due to the fact that her father had a brief conversion to Islam when Shadia was two years old, despite the fact that her father was living apart from the family at the time and that he later re-converted to Christianity. Egyptian children are obliged to take the religion of their father.

4. China: Not All Beliefs Are Equal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Nov. 22)
5. Azerbaijan: Two More Baptists Threatened (Nov. 27)
6. Clergy Arrested in China Following Diocesan Meeting (Nov. 27)

Feature: Bahá’í World News Service documents the United Nations General Assembly’s recent attention to the human rights situation in Iran, including the “increasing discrimination and other human rights violations against persons belonging to religious, ethnic, linguistic or other minorities.”

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International Religious Freedom Archive from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty