TASHKENT, Uzbekistan - Lawyers for a Jehovah's Witness accused of inciting ethnic and religious hatred in Uzbekistan pleaded Wednesday for a court to recognize international conventions safeguarding freedom of religion that have been signed by the Uzbek government.
Under the Uzbek constitution, such international agreements should take precedence over Uzbek law, said John Burns, a Canadian lawyer on the defense team for Marat Mudarisov.
Mudarisov, 26, was arrested July 19 and faces up to five years in prison for charges including incitement, membership in an unregistered religious organization, and disseminating views insulting to Uzbeks' national and religious feelings.
Prosecutors at the trial, which began Oct. 16, have focused their case on an Uzbek-language pamphlet allegedly found in Mudarisov's possession that argues of the superiority of the Bible over the Quran.
However, Mudarisov's mother, Nuria, said her son, an ethnic Tatar, doesn't speak Uzbek and his defense argues that the pamphlet, titled "Truth, The Only Truth," was planted on their client.
Uzbekistan has been internationally criticized as persecuting some Muslim factions in its quest to stem extremism. Human rights groups hope Mudarisov's case will be thrown out, setting a precedent for the handling of other religious rights cases.
Burns said religious guarantees across the former Soviet Union often require precedents to be established in court to determine how authorities apply their own laws.
"You can have all the paper you want, like a constitution, but it means nothing unless it's tested in a court of law," he said.
Arli Chimirov, a Russian attorney on Mudarisov's defense team, submitted documents on international human rights law and Jehovah's Witness beliefs to Judge Sherzod Usmonov, urging they be considered in the case. Those include a U.N. covenant on civil and political rights and agreements Uzbekistan has signed as a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which recognize the principle of religious freedom.
Mudarisov was arrested after his mother brought him to a police station because she said authorities threatened his arrest. She says she was then forced to write a document requesting authorities' help to take her son away from the Jehovah's Witnesses or he would face worse charges.
There are more than 3,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in mostly Muslim Uzbekistan, group members say, and they have been allowed to register in two other cities.