P r a g u e / B a k u –The European Baptist Federation (EBF) has intensified its efforts to gain the freedom of Baptist pastor Hamid Shabanov, arrested in Azerbaijan on 20 June. According to official reports, police had “found an illegal weapon”. Yet Elnur Jabiyev (Baku), General-Secretary of Azerbaijan’s Baptist Union, is convinced that police planted the weapon in the home of the Baptist pastor in Aliabad near the border with Georgia. According to Jabiyev, the matter is “a deliberately targeted action” aiming to “halt Baptist activity and close the church”.

EBF-General-Secretary Tony Peck (Prague) addressed the matter with the Azerbaijani Ambassador in the Czech Republic and presented him with documents on the case. The Ambassador promised to look into the issue and raise Baptists’ concerns with the national and appropriate regional parliament of Azerbaijan. Peck also expressed his desire to visit the country together with the EBF’s Human Rights and Religious Freedom Committee. The Ambassador promised to help the EBF obtain the visas and travel permits needed to visit Aliabad. In a conversation with EBPS, Peck reported on the positive outcome of the meeting: “The Ambassador, Mr. Tahir Taghizadeh assured us that he would investigate as fully as possible the case of Pastor Shabanov and report back to us. He emphasized that his country is committed to upholding religious freedom.” Peck called on the Baptists of Europe to pray for the release of Shabanov and also to contact the Azerbaijani embassies in their own countries “to protest this latest violation of religious freedom”.

Last May, Baptist pastor Zaur Balayev was arrested in Aliabad – according to official reports – for resisting a police search. Members of his congregation rejected this description as entirely false. Balayev was nevertheless handed a two-year prison sentence. He spent 10 months in prison before being unexpectedly released in March as part of an amnesty. Baptist and former US-President Jimmy Carter (Plains/GA) had appealed for his release.

Both Balayev and Shabanov are pastors of house churches with between 50 and 60 members each. David Coffey (Didcot), President of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), stated: “The BWA will do all we can to publicize among the world family what has happened in Aliabad.” BWA-General-Secretary Neville Callam expressed dismay regarding the arrest: “We are registering our grave disappointment at the denial of religious freedom that is evident in Azerbaijan. Our Baptist brothers and sisters in Azerbaijan should be completely assured of the BWA commitment to pray for them as they struggle in the context of oppression, and, as an expression of our historic commitment to personal liberty, freedom, and justice, to make representation on their behalf.”

The Azerbaijani Baptist Union has three officially-registered congregations and 19 preaching locations with a total of 3.000 members. Ninety percent of the country’s 8.3 million residents are Muslims.