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The religious community "Jehovah's Witnesses" in Azerbaijan filed a complaint with several suits to the European Court of Human Rights against the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations. According to the Azerbaijani news agency "APA", the community claims against the State Committee of Azerbaijan connected with unrestricted import of religious literature, the use of censorship against it, etc.

"APA" notes that the appeal has already been accepted and approved by the ECHR. Claims were made separately. Among them were the claims of the members of the community Akchurina Gyulsiry Gayazovna and Muhammedalieva Camila Shovketovna; appeals that have not been satisfied by the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan.

The article recalls that earlier Baku Administrative Economic Court number 2 did not satisfy the claim of the community. Baku Court of Appeal kept the decision in force. Azerbaijan's Supreme Court kept the decision in force too, thereby not satisfying the claim of the community.

In this regard, no comments from the State Committee of Work with Religious Organizations of Azerbaijan were received, the report said.

The U.S. State Department report on "Freedom of religion" says that despite the fact that the Constitution of Azerbaijan provides freedom of religion, in practice, the laws and policies of the authorities restrict this freedom. In 2011, the Azerbaijani authorities carried out raids in some religious services, the confiscated religious materials, harassed and arrested members of the Muslim and Christian communities.

In addition, when registering the religious groups face onerous demands by the government. The registration process itself is a kind of lever that is used by the authorities of Azerbaijan against the unwanted religious groups. The same groups that operate without registration are presecuted by the authorities, included fines and court cases demanding their closure, the report of the U.S. State Department reads.