Turkmenistan: "Show trial" for conscientious objector

Forum18.org 2012-02-16 - copyright by Forum18

At the trial of the latest Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector Akmurad Nurjanov in a courtroom in Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabad, senior school students were present to witness his one-year suspended prison sentence being handed down.

The video is not part of the official release.

"Taking them to the trial appears to have been designed as a warning of what will happen to the young men if they refuse military service," one Jehovah's Witness told Forum 18 News Service, calling the event a "show trial". It remains

Senior school students were taken to a court house in Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabad [Ashgabat] for what one fellow Jehovah's Witness described to Forum 18 News Service as a "show trial" for their latest conscientious objector. Akmurad Nurjanov