Russia designates myriad of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ materials as extremist

[bruceq]

Former president of Russian Baptists sets Jehovah's Witnesses case in wider context

INTERVIEW: WITH PASTOR YURY SIPKO

Portal-Credo.Ru, 27 March 2017

The second decade is ending when lawlessness, falsehood, violence, bribery, and blackmail have seized all levels of the upper government. The concept of rights and liberties of man and citizen are ridiculed and betrayed. Amendments to the law on freedom of conscience, regulating evangelistic activity, rammed in one fell swoop into the "package of antiterrorism laws" and nobody flinched. Having equated evangelism, an essentially religious activity, with terrorism, the government declared war on believing people. Followers of Scientology have been banned, numerous local organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses have already been prohibited, and the lawsuit for banning the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) testifies to the loss of common sense by people of the government.  After all, this declaration of the Ministry of Justice was preceded by numerous criminal acts by people of the government when questionable literature was planted in Jehovah's Witnesses' meetings.

 

--Can there be a rationale for placing Witnesses' publications in the list of "extremist publications"?

 

--There is not a single instance when the activity of the JW organization was aimed at support of terrorism or was extremist. In our country, the JW have done nothing illegal and they have never even come close to the territory of politics.

FROM TASS NEWS AGENCY MOSCOW, RUSSIA JUST MINUTES AGO:

Russia designates myriad of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ materials as extremist

World

March 31, 2:24UTC+3
The Jehovah’s Witnesses center underwent an unscheduled inspection of documents from February 8 to 27

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© ITAR-TASS/Yevgeny Yepachintsev, archive

MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. In the period of 2009 through 2016, the Russian Justice Ministry recognized 95 materials circulated by the Jehovah’s Witnesses Managerial Center in Russia religious organization as the ones having an extremist nature, the ministry said in a report at its official homepage.

 

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Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia suspended over extremism

 

"In the period of 2009 through to 2016, ninety-five materials that Jehovah’s Witnesses brought into and circulated in Russia were found to have an extremist nature," the report said. "As many as eight local cells of the organization were recognized to be extremist ones, banned and disbanded since 2009."

The Jehovah’s Witnesses center underwent an unscheduled inspection of documents in the period of February 8 through February 27.

The report also said the Justice Ministry suspended all activities of the organization as of March 15 and until consideration of the case by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

 

As of March 15, the organization and its structural units cannot use the services of mass media, hold meetings or mass actions or public functions, or use bank accounts except for the purpose of paying bills and taxes, compensating for the losses inflicted upon others and paying out remunerations to the personnel they hire.

Reports on suspension of operations of the Jehovah’s Witnesses managerial center appeared in the media on March 23 when the Justice Ministry placed it on the list of public and religious organizations, the operations of which were suspended in the wake of their extremist actions.

On April 5, Russia’s Supreme Court will hear a lawsuit wherein the Justice Ministry seeks to recognize the Jehova’s Witnesses as a religious organization, to disband it and to ban its operations in Russia.

More:
http://tass.com/world/938600

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