Kazakhstan President Agrees With Invalidation of Religion Law Changes

Forum 18 reported Tuesday that Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev will not challenge last month's decision by the Constitutional Council ruling that recently enacted amendments to the country's religion laws are unconstitutional. (See prior posting.) The President had referred the amendments to the Council instead of signing them after Parliament approved them. He now says he agrees with the Constitutional Council's ruling and the Prime Minister's office says it has no plans to introduce a new religion law. It appears that the now-rejected law was never the product of the Prime Minister's office, but instead came from members of Parliament who circulated it to the Justice Ministry's Religious Affairs Committee for comment. Parliamentary supporters of the new law are not sure whether they will attempt to enact other sorts of restrictions. One supporter, Berik Bekzhanov, says that he is still concerned with groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses.