Kirovo-Chepetsk Jehovah's Witnesses face liquidation

[Guest Kurt]

JEHOVAH AND THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
Chepetsk.ru, 26 January 2017
 
Believers will go off into the underground. The Chepetsk prosecutor's office is preparing documents for the court in order to obtain a ban on the activity of the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city. The police told about this at a recent session of the city duma.
 
Oleg Luchinin, the chief of the police department:  "Work that was conducted in the past year jointly with the FSB and the prosecutor's office has permitted us to identify the leaders and active participants of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses who engaged in distribution of forbidden extremist literature. Administrative reports have been drawn up with respect to the leader of this organization and administrative penalties have been imposed in the form of fines.
 
We have described previously the unsuccessful attempts of the organization to challenge in court the actions of the prosecutor's office and warnings that were issued. The prosecutor's office will try to put an end to the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses in Kirovo-Chepetsk through the court, appealing to systematic incidents of the distribution of forbidden literature.
 
On this issue, Chepetsk is not a pioneer. Within the borders of the country a number of branches of the organization have been liquidated and some people have been held criminally accountable. We note that the Jehovah's Witnesses is one of the largest religious organizations in the world; in Russia alone it counts 400 branches.

Background articles:

Jehovah's Witness leader loses appeal of conviction for extremism

CHAIRMAN OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN KIROVO-CHEPETSK CALLED FOR EXTREMISM

Gorod-Che, 10 May 2016
 
From materials of the case it has been learned that in the period of time from 20 to 30 December 2015, the chairman of the Kirovo-Chepetsk religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Pinegin, while at his residence and using a personal computer, published on his page in the social network Odnoklassniki a link to a website that in 2013 and 2014 was ruled in Russia to be extremist and included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.
 
These circumstances were revealed in the course of a prosecutorial verification jointly with police personnel.
 
A source in law enforcement agencies also reported that during meetings members of the Jehovah's Witnesses conducted mass distribution of religious literature, which contained statements of a negative attitude toward various elements of traditional Christianity.
 
From his words and from evidence of witnesses who attended events of the local organization, Roman Pinegin, who was the director of the mission, conducted propaganda of destructive religious teaching that aimed at arousing hatred or hostility toward representatives of traditional confessions and the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church. In addition it was established that Roman Pinegin uses his account on the social network for posting text publications of Jehovah's Witnesses that have been ruled to be extremist.
 
By decision of the Kirovo-Chepetsk district court of 16 February 2016, Roman Pinegin was held administratively accountable in accordance with article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law of the RF, "production and distribution of extremist materials." He was fined 2,000 rubles without confiscation.
 
However the defendant did not agree with the decision of the Kirovo-Chepetsk court. He sent an appeal to the Kirov provincial court for reversal of the ruling. The reason was the absence of the essence of a crime.
 
In April 2016, by decision of the Kirov provincial court, the appeal of the chairman of the committee of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Kirovo-Chepetsk, Roman Pinegin, was dismissed and the ruling of the Kirovo-Chepetsk district court in the case concerning administrative violation of law against this citizen was left without change.
 
We recall that in March public figures of Kirov sent an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin with the request to ban by judicial process the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses on the territory of Kirov province. "In the opinion of a whole number of Russian and foreign specialists, Jehovah's Witnesses are an organization with indicators of a totalitarian sect, where methods of strict mind control are applied," the appeal points out. In addition, within the sect prohibitions are practiced that lead to the loss of social experience and worsening of psychological and physical health and sometimes even of life.
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Internet link to Jehovah's Witnesses' website considered extremist activity

KIROVO-CHEPETSK CONGREGATION OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DO NOT SUCCEED IN CHALLENGING PROSECUTOR'S WARNING
SOVA Center for News and Analysis, 12 January 2017
 
In January 2017 it was learned that on 6 December 2016 the Kirovo-Chepetsk district court of Kirov province refused to grant the lawsuit of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of the city of Kirovo-Chepetsk for finding a warning about the impermissibility of committing extremist activity to be illegal.
 
The warning had been sent to the organization after its chairman was fined in the spring of 2016 2,000 rubles on the basis of article 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law (mass distribution of extremist materials) for publishing on the Odnoklassniki social network a link to the official website of the Jehovah's Witnesses, which had been banned as extremist and included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials.
 
We regard the prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses under the guise of the struggle with extremism as religious discrimination. 
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Jehovah's Witnesses fear far-reaching consequences of fine levied on them

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES SEE THREAT TO FREEDOM OF CONFESSION IN DZERZHINSK OF NIZHNY NOVGOROD PROVINCE
KozaPress, 25 January 2017
 
The press service of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia told Koza that the penalty by a court that imposed a fine on the chairman of the local division of this religious organization in Dzerzhinsk of Nizhny Novgorod province may have far-reaching consequences for freedom of religious confession in this city.
 
We recall that earlier we reported that the chairman of the committee of Jehovah's Witnesses in Dzerzhinsk was fined for two brochures that were discovered by representatives of the prosecutor's office in a toilet of the building where worship services of the sect are held.
 
Meanwhile the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses maintains that those materials, which have been ruled to be extremist, were planted.
 
According to information posted on the website of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, in the evening of 8 November 2016, not long before the start of a service, a senior assistant prosecutor of the city, Natalia Sukhova, entered the building under the pretext of a fire inspection, accompanied by an inspector from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and personnel in civilian clothing. Later a squad of police arrived.
 
"An officer in plain clothes discretely went into the toilet for people with disabilities. When he came out he declared that two religious brochures that are included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials were lying in the toilet. Since the brochures were not in the building before the arrival of the siloviki--and besides the Jehovah's Witnesses do not keep religious literature in the toilet--believers stated strongly that 'this was a plant and a provocation on the part of the persons who arrived.' The scheduled worship service was cancelled," the report that was distributed says.
 
"Jehovah's Witnesses decisively object to hanging the label of 'extremists' on them, stressing that extremism is profoundly alien to their views and ethics, which are based on the Bible," the source notes, adding that devotees of this sect do not use literature from the Federal List of Extremist Materials and they do not permit its appearance in their houses of worship.