Washington, USA - The International Coalition for Religious Freedom calls for Kazakhstan to overturn the conviction of Elizaveta Drenicheva, who is currently serving a two-year sentence due to a court's ruling that her church's innocent religious teachings were interpreted by the court as a criminal offense. Her appeal is scheduled for March 10.
On January 9, 2009, Elizaveta Eugenievna Drenicheva was sentenced to two years in prison by Almalinsky district court of Almaty, Kazakhstan, under the chairmanship of Judge Z.B. Keikibasova. She had been charged under Section 164, part 1 of the Kazakh criminal code. The judge ruled that she was guilty of a "crime against peace and security of humankind" because she had taught that certain groups of people are inferior on the basis of their relation to "tribal and class identity."
In fact, Mrs. Drenicheva was simply teaching the Unification Church's doctrine on original sin, which holds that all human beings are born into a sinful state and need to attain salvation through God's grace and their own efforts. The Unification Church is an officially registered religion in Kazakhstan and had received no previous indication from the government that its teachings were legally problematic.
Kazakhstan is currently facing a crossroads in its human-rights policy. Its constitutional committee (high court) recently overturned a repressive new religious law. However, Mrs. Drenicheva's case shows that certain forces in Kazakhstan still have the power to imprison religious minorities by distorting their teachings.
Today, Dr. Antonio Stango, a distinguished advisor to the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights, expressed his concern about the decline of human rights in that country: " Kazakhstan 's commitments to improving freedom of expression, including freedom of religion, are not being implemented. Jailings of Baptists, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishnas, Unification Church members, and others confirm the hardships still faced by the followers of the so-called 'non traditional' religions. Particularly as Chair-in-office of the OSCE next year, Kazakhstan should adopt more positive measures and defend the integrity of the OSCE's human rights principles."
We call on human-rights organizations, political and diplomatic leaders, and all people of conscience to signal to the appropriate Kazakh authorities that Mrs. Drenicheva's conviction must be overturned on appeal and that she should be immediately released.