At the earlier Supreme Court hearing on 30 May, "we laid out our position forcefully that the ban was completely illegal," Miri's lawyer Elmar Suleymanov told Forum 18. He said the State Committee's lawyer "was unable to give a reasoned refutation of our arguments" (see below).
Miri has been trying through the courts to overturn the
pre-publication ban imposed in February 2017 because an official disagreed with the book theologically . Replying, Miri told the State Committee that
"it is not correct to ban a book I wrote in a country which does not [officially] have censorship" (see below).
No one at the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations "Expert Analysis [Censorship] Department" in Baku would talk to Forum 18 on 12 June (see below).
In April, Mammad Ramazanov from the northern town of Zaqatala [Zakatala] lost his appeal against his fine – thought to be of several months' average wages - for "illegal" distribution of religious books. The local State Committee official refused to say if he had been involved in the prosecution, or to discuss any other aspect of the case (see below).
Raids have been frequent in recent years, both on individuals (to seize religious literature) and on shops selling religious literature (to check that both the shops and the books themselves have official approval). However, the authorities appear to have launched fewer such raids in 2019 so far, Forum 18 notes.
Jehovah's Witnesses have lodged five appeals to international bodies against the Azerbaijani government's earlier bans on the import of specific items of literature after failing to overturn the bans in local courts. Four cases have been lodged to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and one complaint to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (see forthcoming F18News article).