The family and friends of imprisoned Baptist pastor in Azerbaijan, Zaur Balaev, say they are shocked by the high level of payments demanded by officials at the prison in the capital Baku where he is now being held.

They complain that payment is demanded before they will give him food or allow him meetings with relatives, his friends have told Forum 18 News Service.

Officials have denied to Forum 18 persecution news agency that such payments are extracted from prisoners.

Balaev lodged a second appeal on 14 October against what he and his fellow Baptists maintain is a "trumped-up charge" designed to punish him for his leadership of a much-persecuted congregation in a remote village of north-western Azerbaijan. The Supreme Court - which is due to hear Balaev's appeal - has a further month to respond.

Ilya Zenchenko, head of Azerbaijan's Baptist Union, told the news agency that if the second appeal fails, all that can be done will be to wait until Balaev has served two-thirds of his sentence and then apply for early release.

"That's if there are no violations or remarks on his record and no provocations," he told Forum 18 from Baku on 14 November.

In a move that Zenchenko describes as "disturbing", police in the southern port town of Neftechala on the Caspian Sea, have threatened local Baptist Jabbar Musaev with the same fate as that of Balaev.

"On 1 and 2 November, Pastor Telman Aliev and his assistant Jabbar Musaev were summoned one by one by the police for 'preventative conversations'," Zenchenko told Forum 18.

"Pastor Telman was not intimidated and is continuing to lead services. But Jabbar was forced not to attend church. They promised to arrange the same thing as happened to Zaur if he appears in church again."

In what he regards as part of the same campaign, Zenchenko added that police raided and closed down a five-day Baptist children's camp during the summer in Agdash in central Azerbaijan, south east of Yevlakh [Yevlax].

"The authorities are celebrating their temporary victory over some of our brethren," he told Forum 18. He called for "spiritual and moral support" from around the world.

Officials denied absolutely to Forum 18 that prisoners are forced to pay anything to guards before they are given food, water, washing facilities and meetings with relatives.

"No-one pays for anything," Mehman Sadykov, spokesperson for the Justice Ministry which administers Azerbaijan's prisons, claimed to Forum 18 from Baku on 16 November. "The state pays for everything, including food."

Told that guards constantly extract money from Balaev and his fellow prisoners, Sadykov responded: "Such reports don't correspond with reality." Asked how he knows, he replied: "I have worked in the system for more than twenty years."

Sadykov denied that Balaev is a prisoner of conscience being punished for the peaceful exercise of his faith. "We don't have prisoners of conscience," he claimed.

Sadykov's denials were echoed by another senior official with responsibilities in the area of human rights, who spoke off the record. "Of course everything is paid for by the state," the official claimed. "I know many people here complain but I don't believe that people have to pay."

However, Zardusht Alizade of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly rejects their assurances. "The prison system is absolutely corrupted," he told Forum 18 from Baku on 16 November. "Apart from at the National Security Ministry investigation prison, warders in all other prisons extract bribes from all prisoners for everything."

He said that prisoners who cannot raise the money for bribes will not starve, but will get only the bare minimum of poor food that will enable them not to die of hunger.

Elchin Askerov, Deputy Chair of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations, denied suggestions that Baptist and other religious communities face harassment in Azerbaijan and that Balaev is being persecuted for his faith.

"You have false information," he told Forum 18 from Baku on 16 November. He insisted that according to "official information", Balaev had been prosecuted for resisting the police.

Asked about testimony by Balaev's church members that the case had been fabricated by the police, Askerov responded: "I wasn't there, but I have no reason to believe that the police lied."

Askerov insists that the actions had been taken by the police and prosecutor's office, not by his Committee. "It is not within our competence." But he claimed that all religious communities can meet freely for worship.

When asked to explain why religious communities - such as Balaev's Baptist congregation - face repeated harassment, he denied that such harassment takes place.

Asked why so many religious communities have failed to get legal status when they apply for it - Balaev's congregation has been trying to get registration in vain since 1994 - Askerov responded: "I presume they didn't present their application documents in accordance with the law." Told that the local notary has repeatedly refused to notarise the signatures on the registration application, he said: "I don't know why."

Balaev was transferred on 26 October to Ordinary Regime Prison Colony No10, located in Darnagyul in Baku's Narimanov District.