Jehovah's Witness leader loses appeal of conviction for extremism

[Guest Kurt]

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.
-----------------------------

Expert analysis of Jehovah's Witnesses' book lists signs of extremism

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES' BOOK ABOUT LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST BANNED

SOVA Center for News and Analysis, 6 May 2016
 
In December 2015, a St. Petersburg court found an illustrated book about Jesus, "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived," to be extremist.
 
On 5 May 2016, the Federal List of Extremist Materials once again was extended. From the update it became known that on 22 December 2015 the Smolny district court of St. Petersburg ruled the electronic version of the book "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived," which was posted on the Jehovah's Witnesses' website that was banned in 2014, to be extremist. This is an illustrated book about the life of Jesus Christ.
 
A petition for finding the book extremist was submitted to the court of the North-West Transport prosecutor's office on the basis of results of monitoring the Internet after Jehovah's Witnesses tried to import 1,440 copies of the book through the south customs post of St. Petersburg customs. An investigation, conducted at the request of the prosecutor's office by the Center of Expert Analysis of the St. Petersburg State University, showed that the text of the book contains expressions intended to incite strife; propaganda of exclusivity, superiority, and inferiority; negative assessments of a group of persons; and psycho-linguistic indicators of the debasing of human dignity and inciting hostility on the basis of nationality, language, descent, attitude toward religion, and affiliation with specific social groups, including the group of "representatives of all earthly human governments, in particular the United Nations."
 
We have familiarized ourselves with the book "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived" and we did not find signs of extremism in it. We consider the prohibition of this book to be illegal and we regard it as another example of religious discrimination against Jehovah's Witnesses. 

---------------------------

Jehovah's Witness on trial for literature distribution

JEHOVAH'S WITNESS FINED BY COURT IN SEROV
by Andrei Kleimenov
GlobusSerov, 27 April 2016
 
A Serov district court issued a decision regarding an administrative case against one of the founders of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses.
 
According to Globus' information, the court in Serov fined citizen R [full name not given—tr.], one of the founders of the local organization of Jehovah's Witnesses for distributing literature that is included in the list of extremist materials. These materials were placed in the list because they contain calls for inciting religious strife and propaganda of the inferiority of a person on the basis of indicators of his attitude toward religion.
 
Yesterday, 26 April 2016, federal Judge Nikolai Khabarov announced the resultant portion of the decision, Ksenia Lushnikova, a consultant of the Serov district court, told Globus.
 
The fine of the citizen was 2,000 rubles.
 
The court's decision has not taken legal effect, and it will likely be appealed.
 
We have not yet managed to get official comment from the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, and we are ready to let them have their say.
 

[Mario A. Lawrence]

Russia is wasting its time going after lowly brothers, We Have no Leader, but the Christ, the same Christ the eastern orthodox church claim to follow... tell them beware  Russia, a war against the Christ and Jehovah is one you will not and cannot win Psalm 2...

 

[Sam Thorne]

If this had occurred in the United States of America, rather than the European Union, the member states would respect the precedents already established by the Supreme Court, and would desist from Human Rights violations such as this.

By comparison, the states of the European Union, especially in the east of Europe, have a scofflaw attitude toward the precedents of the European Court of Human Rights, with such arrogant attitude toward the Court, that each of them insists that the ECHR's decisions don't apply to them, until each of them have had the ECHR decide specifically against them.

The United States of America are united.  By comparison, by including these scofflaw states, the European Union makes itself, not a union of states, but a gang of glorified Ku Klux Klan chapters.  One wonders why some of its states bothered to fight off Nazism and the Soviet Union, only to create Nazism and Sovietism anew for themselves.