Minos Kokkinakis

[Guest Kurt]

Torre di Guardia del 1 settembre 1993 pag.31 

In 1938 the Greek anti-Communist dictator Ioannis Metaxas passed a strict criminal law against proselytism. Minos Kokkinakis of Crete was the first man arrested under the law and, a half century later, he would be the last. In the intervening years, he would be detained more than sixty times and serve more than six years behind bars. Minos lived an epic life.

He is most notable for his repeated clashes with Greece's ban on proselytism.

For starters, freedom of religion:

"Another case involved a Witness in Greece named Minos Kokkinakis. Over a period of 48 years, he was arrested more than 60 times for “proselytism.” On 18 occasions, he faced prosecution in court. He spent years in prison and in exile on remote islands in the Aegean Sea. After his last conviction in 1986, Brother Kokkinakis lost his appeals to the higher courts of Greece. He then sought relief through the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). On May 25, 1993, that Court ruled that Greece had violated Brother Kokkinakis’ freedom of religion.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have appealed to the ECHR for relief in dozens of cases, prevailing in most of them. No other organization, religious or otherwise, has had such success in defending basic human rights before the ECHR.
Do others benefit from the legal victories of Jehovah’s Witnesses? Scholar Charles C. Haynes wrote:“We all owe the Jehovah’s Witnesses a debt of gratitude. No matter how many times they ’re insulted, run out of town or even physically attacked, they keep on fighting for their (and thus our) freedom of religion. And when they win, we all win.”
[Footnote]
For a more recent example, see the account of the U.S. Supreme Court ’s decision regarding free speech, which was published in Awake! January 8, 2003, pages 3-11." - "Bearing Thorough Witness About God's Kingdom," 2009, p. 200.

We have also been appealing to the UNHRC in behalf of human rights, especially religious freedom - as a non-governmental organization (NGO).

Kokkinakis V Greece 1993 ECHR 20

Banal, benign or pernicious? The relationship between religion and national identity from the perspective of religious minorities in Greece

Minos Kokkinakis

Wikipedia

"The 50 years of persecution was worth going through for this historic moment," Kokkinakis declared.

Kokkinakis v. Greece

CASE OF KOKKINAKIS v. GREECE