TAJIKISTAN: Conscientious objector tortured, jailed for two years

[Isabella]

Nearly six months after being seized, Dushanbe's Military Court jailed 20-year-old Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector Jovidon Bobojonov today (2 April) for two years in a general regime labour camp for refusing compulsory military service. He has already appealed against his conviction. While held in the military unit, personnel tortured Bobojonov with beatings to pressure him to take the military oath and put on uniform.

The Military Court in the capital Dushanbe today (2 April) jailed 20-year-old Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector Jovidon Bobojonov for two years in a general regime labour camp for refusing compulsory military service on grounds of conscience. He has already appealed against his conviction.
 

Although he has been held since October 2019, Bobojonov's sentence is deemed to run from the date of his arrest in January 2020. Bobojonov faced between two and five years in prison (see below).

Guards brought Bobojonov to court in handcuffs from Dushanbe's Investigation Prison, where he has been held since his transfer from a military unit in January (see below).

While in the military unit between October 2019 and January 2020, military personnel tortured Bobojonov with beatings as they tried to pressure him to take the military oath and put on military uniform. Forum 18 was unable to find out if the military personnel who tortured Bobojonov have been arrested and brought to justice (see below).

The last conscientious objector known to have been convicted and imprisoned was fellow Jehovah's Witness Daniil Islamov, jailed for six months in 2017 (see below).

Jehovah's Witnesses are conscientious objectors to military service and their beliefs do not allow them to undertake any kind of activity supporting any country's military. But they are willing to undertake an alternative, totally civilian form of service, as is the right of all conscientious objectors to military service under international human rights law

http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2559