Russia: Moscow lower court's verdict quashed

by expatbrit 5 Replies latest jw friends

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  expatbrit

  Russia: Moscow lower court's verdict in favour of Jehovah's Witnesses quashed
  BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; May 30, 2001

  Text of report by Russian news agency RIA

  Moscow, 30th May, RIA "Novosti" correspondent Mariya Lokotskaya: On Wednesday [ 30th May], the Moscow city court upheld the protest lodged by the public prosecutor's office of the capital's northern administrative district and quashed the verdict of the Golovinskiy intermunicipal court, which , on 23rd February 2001, refused to ban the activities of the Moscow group of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization and liquidate it.

  RIA "Novosti" was told by lawyer Galina Krylova, the spokeswoman of Jehovah's Witnesses in the court, that according to the higher court's decision, the civil case concerning the liquidation of and the banning of the activities of the Moscow group of Jehovah's Witnesses has been returned to the Golovinskiy court for a new hearing.

  The civil case concerning the liquidation of and the banning of the activities of the Moscow group of Jehovah's Witnesses was instituted by the northern administrative district's public prosecutor at the request of the public organization "The committee for saving young people from totalitarian sects". The public prosecutor's submission to the court accused group members of stirring up religious dissension, forcibly breaking up families, harming citizens' personality, rights and freedom, refusing blood transfusions in cases of emergencies, as well as of involving minors in the organization's activities without the knowledge of their parents.

  Bringing the first civil case of this kind became possible on the basis of section 14 of the law "On freedom of consciences and religious associations". The trial began on 29th September 1998.

  The lawyers of Jehovah's Witnesses regarded the judicial process in the Golovinskiy court [as received, presumably Moscow city court is meant] as "a political one, aimed at harming the rights of a religious organization". In their view, the public prosecutor's office, had been unable to present a single piece of evidence or specific fact which would have confirmed the accusations.

  In Moscow, Jehovah's Witnesses were registered by the capital's justice directorate as a religious organization in 1991.

  Source: RIA news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1653 gmt 30 May 01

  /BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.

  World Reporter All Material Subject to Copyright
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  MacHislopp

  Hello Expatbrit,

  thanks for the information!

  It is interesting to see where all this is leading to..!

  I'll copy thepost and send to a friend
  of mine, more "versed " in Eastern affairs.

  Agape, J.C. MacHislopp
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  messenger

  i can find no verification of this anywhere in russian news sources nor the bbs. if this is real why can you not find it??
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  Drue

  Thank you Expatbrit for bringing this up.

  I wanted to post it, but had no time to translate it into English.

  the Russian source article can be found here:
  http://www.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=61&msg_id=1658818&startrow=1&find=%E8%E5%E3%EE%E2%FB

  You are correct to say that Golovinskiy court is a Moscow city court, it's just called so. (I beleive, a court in a NYC borough could be called 'Brooklyn court', so its similar here)

  JWs in Moscow and in some other areas of Russia have experienced continious problems with renting places for meetings becauce of the trial. As said, the accusations against the WT were dismissed 23 February this year, but as it happened, the prosecution appealed the court decison and apparently will have another chance.

  My personal impression from reading the court transcripts (available at jw-russia.org in Russian) was that the prosecution was not very well-prepared for the case, as compared with the lawers who defend the Witnesses. One of them, Galina Krylova, is not a JW. She specializes in cases where religious minorities are involved. She defended, among others, the Scientologists, Jesuits, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Aum Sinriko who all experienced difficulties under the Russian controversal Religious law. I am posting an article on her defending the Scientologists in the News forum.
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  Drue

  well, here's the link to the english Financial Times article on the matter that Kent provided on his site
  http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=010530011516&query=jehovah#docAnchor010530011516
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  hawkaw

  Expatbrit,

  Do you know anyone at the Toronto Star, Globe or National Post down in the "big smoke"??

  Maybe they could pick up the UPI wire and run with it if you phone them up and tell them where the story is. Just tell them they don't need to put a reporter on it. All they have to do is print the story of the newswire.

  I am going to phone my Kingston paper up and see if I can at leats get them to run the France story right off the newswire.

  hawk